Employment statistics continue to improve. In April, the jobless rate hit 3.3 percent — the lowest in 18 years, while the ratio of employment offers to job seekers reached a 23-year high of 1.17, with the figure topping 1 — a condition where there are enough job openings to accommodate everyone looking for work — for the 18th month in a row. While the Abe administration is keen on taking credit for the improved job outlook, labor demand is forecast to remain tight for the foreseeable future due to the rapid aging and decline of the nation's population.
What will be needed are efforts to translate the better job figures into a higher quality of jobs on offer, such as in status and conditions.
After hitting 5.5 percent in July 2009 amid the global recession in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse in September 2008, the jobless rate in Japan has been hovering below 4 percent since fall 2013, mirroring an upward trend in the economy.