The unemployment rate in Japan stood at 2.9% in January, a mini-decline compared to December, despite the return of the state of emergency system in the face of Covid-19 weighing in particular on catering, according to official data released Tuesday.
Bloomberg consensus economists expected an unemployment rate of 3%, against the backdrop of the state of emergency reinstated at the start of the year in several departments of the archipelago, including those of Tokyo and its suburbs.
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But this device affects the national economy much less than the first state of emergency implemented in Japan in the spring of 2020. Its main measure is to ask the bars and restaurants in the departments concerned to close at 8 p.m.
Partial unemployment, subsidized by the state to prevent a surge in unemployment due to the pandemic, however increased significantly in January, when it concerned 2.44 million people against 2.02 million the previous month.
Due to its significant demographic decline and limited reliance on immigration, Japan suffers from a chronic labor shortage in many sectors, which is one of the reasons for its extremely high unemployment rate. low.
The ratio between job supply and demand, still positive, even rose slightly in January to 110/100, meaning that there were 110 job vacancies for every 100 applicants.
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The unemployment statistics for the previous months, adjusted for seasonal variations, have been retroactively revised upwards.
The December unemployment rate was thus raised to 3%, from 2.9% initially.
The state of emergency was lifted last Sunday in six departments of the country, while the rate of new coronavirus infections has weakened considerably since the end of January.
The device was maintained in Tokyo and its four neighboring departments until next Sunday.
