Japan's jobless rate remains just off record


The number of people out of work grew in raw terms, while the total work force in Japan shrank slightly

By Alex Frew McMillan
CNN Hong Kong

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japan's jobless rate remains near unprecedented levels standing at 5.4 percent, the government said Friday.

That remains steady from the previous month and just off the record 5.5 percent rate set in December.

The high number of jobless shows that any recovery in Japan is likely to remain tentative, and the boost in exports this year has had little effect yet on corporate hiring.

While the jobless rate peaked at the end of 2001 and is no longer rising, it has shown little or no improvement over the last three months.

The number of people out of work rose compared to a year ago, up 220,000 to 3.52 million, the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications reported.

More jobs per applicant

There are 63.7 million working people in Japan, a slight 1.2 percent decline over last year.


Life may have gotten a little easier for job seekers, but there are still problems matching people to available posts

However, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare says that life has gotten a little easier for job seekers reporting that the job-offers to job-applicants ratio improved to 0.54 from 0.53, mainly because of a rise in job openings.

That means there are 54 jobs for every 100 workers seeking a position. But jobs are still going unfilled because workers don't have the right training.

"While this is encouraging, labor mismatch is preventing many of those jobs from being filled," J.P. Morgan economist Ryo Hino wrote in a report.

There was also encouraging signs in the number of heads of households that are out of work. The jobless rate for that category fell to 3.4 percent, its lowest since September.

Yen a little stronger

Separately, the Cabinet Office reported that Japan's Gross Domestic Product grew a surprisingly strong 0.5 percent in the second quarter. But a revision knocked the first-quarter figure to a negative (Full story).

On a day with a raft of data releases, the government also reported declines in industrial output and retail sales.

For now, Japan appears to be on track for a slow and tentative recovery, dependent largely on U.S. prospects. But economists like CLSA's Jim Walker expect Japan to slump back into recession later this year (Full story).

The yen strengthened a little on the GDP figures, hitting 118.00 to the U.S. dollar at noon. But Japanese stocks did not warm to the mixed figures, and the Nikkei ended the morning down 0.99 percent at 9,524.78.