— See Separate Table For Details of Individual Forecasts
TOKYO (MNI) – Japan’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is
expected to be at 4.7% in April, up slightly from 4.6% in March, while
the ratio of job offers to job seekers is projected to have fallen to
0.62 from 0.63 in March, according to the median forecasts of analysts
surveyed by Market News International.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will release
the unemployment rate while the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare
will release the ratio of job offers to job seekers, both at 0830 JST on
Tuesday, May 31 (2330 GMT Monday).
In March, Japan’s unemployment rate — national figures minus the
three prefectures hardest hit by the March 11 disaster — stood at
4.6%, unchanged at the two-year low posted in February, as the
number of employed plunged but the number of unemployed rose only
moderately.
The government has said that it is compiling employment and
unemployment data for March and onward without records from the Iwate,
Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, the hardest hit by the earthquake and
tsunami that wrecked the northeastern Pacific coast.
For the time being, the government will release only national data
minus the three prefectures from the monthly Labour Force survey.
Accommodations, eating and drinking services, which had created
jobs steadily until February, shed jobs in March in the aftermath of the
earthquake, which has caused the worst nuclear radiation crisis since
the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown, scaring tourists away from northeastern
regions.
Meanwhile, job creation in March continued to be led by medical,
health care and welfare, wholesale and retail trade as well as services.
skodama@marketnews.com
** Market News International Tokyo Newsroom: 81-3-5403-4838 **
[TOPICS: M$J$$$,M$A$$$,MAJDS$]
