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Bloomberg
Japan’s remarkably tight labour market just got even tighter. The jobless dipped again to around the lowest in almost three decades while the number of jobs available for each applicant has remained at a 44-year high since last year.
Even in easy going sub-tropical Okinawa, which has traditionally lagged mainland Japan in economic development, the ratio is near a record high.
With about two openings for every job-seeker, Tokyo and manufacturing-bastion Aichi prefecture are among the best places to look for work. Even the laggards at the far north and south of the country — Hokkaido and Okinawa — have very tight labour markets. Economists doubt the jobs market can get much tighter.
That’s all welcome news for PM Shinzo Abe as he prepares for local and upper house elections this year. He can use the labour market to argue that a fundamental improvement in Japan’s economy through his Abenomics policies is still in place despite concerns from the slowdown in economies overseas.
There are more job openings in medical services than any other sector. The country’s aging population requires more care, and that demand is only going to increase as Japan’s baby boomers get into their mid 70s in the 2020s.