Japan’s unemployment rate improves to lowest level in 26 years

The unemployment rate in Japan eased to the lowest levels since 1992 for last year, as businesses stepped up in hiring more senior and women working part-time to fill up vacancies in the hotel and food services industries.

Japan’s unemployment rate came in at 2.4% on a seasonally-adjusted basis for last year, data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed. The reading was lower by 0.4 percentage point from the previous year.

The number of unemployed fell by 240,000 people to 1.66 million, marking it the ninth-straight year of decline.

Total workforce in Japan was at 66.64 million, as 1.34 million jobs were added for last year, making it the highest number of people in the workforce on record.

A notable growth was seen in job openings in the hotel and food service industries, and many of those jobs were taken up by the secondary workforce of elderly and women taking on part-time roles, a ministry official said in a press briefing, according to a Nikkei Asian Review report.

Jobs availability for the full year was at 1.61 jobs per applicant, the second-highest reading on record. The highest jobs rating on record was in 1973, at 1.76 jobs per applicant, which saw the country at the tail-end of the post-war economic boom.

Unemployment rate in December eases to 2.4%

For the month of December, unemployment rate was 2.4%, down 0.1 percentage point from the previous month. Meanwhile, jobs availability per applicant for the month was at 1.63 jobs, unchanged and in line with forecasts.

Among the primary workforce of people aged 15 to 64 years old, a total of 77.0% were employed. Within that age group, 84.3% of men and 69.6% of women were employed.