Unemployment rate rose to 2.5% in August, labor shortage, effective job opening ratio decreased slightly to 1.23 times

On October 1, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced that the unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) for August was 2.5%, down 0.2 points from the previous month (2.7%). Photo taken in April 2020 in Tokyo (2024 Reuters / Issei Kato)

TOKYO (Reuters) – Employment-related indicators for August released by the government on 1st showed the unemployment rate was at 2.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis, an improvement of 0.2 points from the month before. The employment situation is showing strength despite a strong sense of joblessness, with some people who had left their jobs for personal reasons starting to find new jobs. The effective job openings-to-application ratio was 1.23 times, down 0.01 point from the previous month.

According to a Reuters forecast survey, the unemployment rate was expected to be 2.6% and the ratio of job openings to applicants was expected to be 1.24 hours.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the number of employed people in August was a seasonally adjusted 67.91 million, an increase of 250,000 from the previous month. This is the highest number since 1953, when the comparison was made. The number of unemployed people fell by 150,000 from the previous month to 1.72 million. As the number of people employed is increasing, the employment situation is “not much less than optimistic,” said an official from the Ministry of the Interior and Communications.

Koya Miyamae, senior economist at SMBC Nikko Securities, said, “There is a persistent labor shortage, and recently employment conditions have fluctuated around the unemployment rate (which is unlikely to fall further). raise wages.” This is seen as “a shift in line with the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy stance.”

According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the number of active job openings (seasonally adjusted) in August decreased by 0.8% compared to the previous month. Recently, there has been an increase in job openings in the hospitality industry and other industries as the summer holiday season approaches, but in June and July, it tended to be for companies in the manufacturing and construction industries hold back on hiring due to increases. costs due to price increases.

The number of active jobseekers (the same) decreased by 0.3%. It seems that there is a desire to determine salaries and wages for finding work in the future. Some say they have stopped visiting Hello Work offices because of the effects of extreme heat and typhoons.

The effective job offer-to-apply ratio shows how many job openings a company offers for each job seeker. Both job offers and job applications are valid for three months, and the data reflects the situation between June and August. Although the ratio has decreased this time, an official from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said, “The number of job openings far exceeds the number of job seekers, and there is no it seems that the employment situation is getting worse.”

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