Japan’s unemployment rate drops in February as job seekers stay put due to COVID-19

Tokyo [Japan], March 29 (ANI/Xinhua): Japan’s unemployment rate slipped to 2.7 per cent in February as would-be new job seekers opted to stay in their existing jobs owing to uncertainty caused by a resurgence in COVID-19 infections, the government said in a report on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said the seasonally adjusted jobless rate fell 0.1 percentage points from January.
This was the period a COVID-19 quasi-state of emergency was declared by the government which saw bars and restaurants in the affected regions asked to close their doors earlier as the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus was spreading rapidly.
The government’s anti-coronavirus measures eventually ended up covering the majority of Japan’s 47 prefectures in the reporting period, including Tokyo and Osaka, owing to the rampant spread of the virus, with the ministry saying that retail and wholesale sectors were severely affected.
Unemployed people in February declined 30,000 from the previous month to a total of 1.88 million, with the figure coming on the heels of a rise of 40,000 booked in January, the ministry said.
New job seekers comprised 450,000 of the total, which was 40,000 less than the previous month, with those leaving the jobs of their own volition totalling 740,000 people, rising 30,000, while 600,000 were made redundant, up 10,000, the data showed.
Even though there was a drop in the unemployment rate, a ministry official was quoted as saying the overall job market was still being largely influenced by the pandemic, as evidenced by the large number of people who are still furloughed.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said the job availability ratio in February inched up to 1.21 from 1.20 in January, marking the second straight month of improvement.
The job availability ratio equates to there being 121 available jobs for every 100 people seeking them. (ANI/Xinhua)