[any comments from our Japan correspondents?]
At 8:37 AM -0500 3/1/02, The Dismal Scientist wrote:
>Employment Situation for Japan (5.3 % Unemployment)
>
>The Japanese labor data continue to look bad, with employment
>falling, and unemployment rising. The unemployment rate, however,
>fell by 0.2 percentage points to 5.3%, as workers dropped out of the
>labor force. The unemployment rate, while high by Japanese
>standards, nevertheless masks a much higher incidence of
>joblessness, which will continue to rise through the first half, at
>least. [any comments from our Japan correspondents?]
If they 'drop out' of the labor force, they still count as unemployed--unless I suppose they count as 'officially retired' or they go back to some sort of post-secondary school (Koizumi did stress re-training for a while). The Japanese gov't picks up the tab for bankrupt companies unable to pay their last salaries and wages, too, by the way.
At least one year after a given period, I think Japanese statistics on unemployment could be very accurate if they wanted them to be (but I don't know at what pains they are to make them so). For example, just about everyone who is self-employed, part-time employed or unemployed goes to a local gov't office to file for health insurance. Since the amount one has to pay into the social insurance (health plus social security) is based on the previous year's income, they can see from this info. just who the chronic unemployed or underemployed are for a given year.
I would say the unemployment rate among young men, ages 17-30, is much higher, and especially high in some areas outside the major urban ones. There is also supposed to be high unemployment among the company lower and middle management because of restructuring.
What counts as unemployed in the US? In the UK? It would be nice if the OECD imposed the same standards on everyone, but I would bet that , once again, the US is out there in its own universe thinking its standards are the world's.
In the 1980s in the US I remember that the 'catch' for counting as unemployed was to have been full-time employed in the first place. No one gave a shit about all the people working two or three part-time jobs out of highs school or college.
Japan is fast catching up to the US on this point: those who want full-time employment but are stuck with part-time (though there is that category of people who only want part-time employment as well).
Charles Jannuzi