TOKYO - Whoever succeeds Shinzo Abe as Japan’s prime minister will be confronted with growing signs that the job market is deteriorating in an economy laid low by the coronavirus pandemic.
But the widening damage from COVID-19 is threatening job creation, among the few successes of Abenomics. The number of temporary workers fell by 1.31 million in July from a year ago, the biggest drop in more than 6-1/2 years. But the pandemic is even starting to affect hiring of university graduates, who until recently had no trouble landing jobs due to chronic labour shortages in an ageing population.
“In Japan, workers can’t be laid off easily even when the economy turns bad. So firms will make adjustments in graduate hiring,” said Taro Saito, executive research fellow at NLI Research Institute.