The nation's employment situation has worsened since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged its supply chains, thus affecting economic activities nationwide. The unemployment rate for April was 4.7 percent, 0.1 percentage point higher than in March.
Since the unemployment data could not be collected in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures devastated by the March 11 disasters, the real status may be worse than the figure suggests. Special attention should be paid to conditions in the affected Tohoku coastal area where fisheries and other local industries were severely damaged.
For example, some 21,000 people worked in fisheries in the three prefectures in 2008 and most of the fishing ports there were destroyed by the March 11 disasters.