Japan’s unemployment rate exceeds forecast, prices fall as pandemic continues to hurt economy

In an interview regarding the rate of joblessness in Japan, Tom Learmouth, an economist at Capital Economics was quoted saying:

“Job offers may have dipped again in May due to the third round of emergency declarations. That may further hold back the recovery in employment,”

He then adds,

“But further ahead we still expect both employment and the labour force to return to pre-virus levels in the second half of the year as vaccines allow the economy to return to full health.”

This came to light as a detailed report of the unemployment rate in Japan had surfaced earlier today. Job availability had started slipping in April according to the report, plunging the country into uncertainty and painting a wider picture of how the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted the first world nation.

Another data had been publicized showing core consumer prices in Tokyo that have fallen in May, effectively manifesting expectations that the inflation will remain below the 2% target set by the central bank.

With these in the cards, the Japanese government is planning to extend the declared state of emergency curbs by about 3 weeks to June 20th, hopefully combating the pandemic with consideration to a fragile recovery of the country’s economy.

The jobless rate in Japan climbed to 2.8% in the previous month from March’s 2.6%. This had exceeded the forecast of only 2.7%.

Jobs-to-applicant ratio stand at 1.09 from April’s 1.10.

Meanwhile, core consumer prices in Tokyo fell 0.2% this month.

The Japanese economy had shrunk within the first quarter. Many analysts concur that any rebound that may happen in the current quarter would be modest with the renewed state of emergency curbs factoring against consumption.