June Job Openings-To-Seekers Ratio Down for 3rd Month

Jiji Press

18:09 JST, July 30, 2024

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Japan’s seasonally adjusted effective ratio of job openings to job seekers dipped 0.01 point from the previous month to 1.23 in June, the third straight month of decline, a labor ministry report showed Tuesday.

While the number of job seekers increased as rising prices weighed on households, concerns about higher costs apparently made companies reluctant to offer jobs.

In the same month, the country’s unemployment rate fell 0.1 point to 2.5%, improving for the first time in five months, the internal affairs ministry said the same day.

The job openings-to-seekers ratio is the number of job openings per person seeking jobs at HelloWork public job placement centers across the country.

The total number of job openings decreased 0.1%, while the number of job seekers increased 0.6%.

According to the labor ministry, the number of elderly people among job seekers is growing as they find it difficult to fully cover daily expenses with pensions amid inflation.

The number of new job openings, a leading economic indicator, dropped 9.4% from a year earlier on an unadjusted basis. Companies, especially in the manufacturing and construction sectors, were reluctant to hire new workers in the face of rising raw material and utility costs.

By prefecture, the job openings-to-seekers ratio was highest in Fukui, at 1.85, and lowest in Osaka, at 1.02.

The unemployment rate is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed people by the labor force. In June, the number of unemployed people fell 60,000 from the previous month to 1.76 million, while the number of people holding jobs grew 250,000 to 67.86 million.