Characteristics of Unemployment

According to a late January report by the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications, Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for December 2001 was 5.6%, the fourth consecutive month in which the unemployment figures were the worst ever.

A look at the unemployment figures, shows four main characteristics:

1. Accelerating rise in rate of unemployment
It took over 20 years for the unemployment rate to reach the 3% level (after the Plaza Accord) since the rate first broke the 2% mark in the 1970s (after the Oil Crisis), but it took only an additional six years for the unemployment rate to reach the 5% mark.

2. Severity of the problem outside Tokyo
The worsening employment market is affecting rural regions in particular. The rapid rise in unemployment in Osaka and the surrounding Kinki region, for example, derives from last year's production center closures and production cutbacks undertaken by the electric and electronics majors. Although the government has earmarked employment subsidies in its supplementary budget to ensure additional employment at the prefectural and municipal levels (e.g., increased number of teachers, additional employment in the forestry sector), such steps were mostly temporary. Comprehensive reform is needed.

3. Increased non-voluntary unemployment
The number of persons who are made unemployed against their will, which exceeded the number of persons who "voluntarily" left work for the first time in November, increased for the second consecutive month, reaching a figure of 1.25 million persons, the worst figure ever.

4. Increase in unemployment among young people
Looking at the unemployment rate by age, we see that unemployment is affecting young people in particular. Unemployment rates were 12.2% among persons aged 15-19, 9.0% among persons aged 20-24, and 6.7% among persons aged 25-29. These rates are much higher than in the middle-aged or older population, whose current unemployment rate receives a great deal of publicity. Although the figures among young people are likely to be somewhat inflated because they reflect young people's ambivalence toward employment to some degree, they also highlight the severity of the unemployment problem.

Of these four issues, particular importance must be attached to the need for immediate action to reduce the high unemployment rate among young people due to the immensely negative effect it risks having on Japan's future.