Most Young Japanese Workers Need Help From Their Parents to Pay The Bills
More than half of young Japanese workers need to rely on support from their parents or other sources to survive, according to a government report.
Fifty-six percent of workers aged between 15 and 34 need to supplement their salaries to cover living expenses, the Labor Ministry said in a report yesterday.
The figure underscores how Japan’s young workers have been among the hardest hit by falling wages and two decades of sluggish economic growth. The unemployment rate for youths aged 15 to 24 soared to 11.1 percent in June, the highest in at least 40 years and double the national average.
“Many of Japan’s youth have become part of a lost generation that can’t find full-time work or get paid the amount they deserve,” said Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai- Ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo. “This means more workers are missing out on the chance to gain the skills they need.”
About 94 percent of young workers earn less than 350,000 yen ($4,153) a month, the report said. That’s less than the overall average wage of 367,815 yen recorded in July.
Forty-seven percent of young workers said they wanted to change jobs in search of higher pay, according to the ministry survey of 15,124 taken in October and November.
Low salaries were delaying people from getting married and having children, Nagahama said.
The average age for Japanese men to marry increased to 30.4 years in 2009, up from 28.4 in 1990, according to the health ministry. For women, the average age rose to 28.6 years from 25.9 years.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kazuyo Sawa in Tokyo at ksawa3@bloomberg.net
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