Economics
Japan Job Market Shows Signs of Healing Before Omicron’s Spread
- Unemployment and jobs-to-applicant rates improve in December
- But rapid spread of the coronavirus in January clouds outlook
Commuters near Shimbashi station in Tokyo.
Photographer: Soichiro Koriyama/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Japan’s unemployment unexpectedly fell in December, signaling that the jobs market was continuing to heal at the end of 2021 before the rapid spread of the omicron variant.
The jobless rate edged down to 2.7%, the ministry of internal affairs reported Tuesday, with the number of workers increasing by 490,000, the most since 1986. Analysts had expected the unemployment rate to hold at 2.8%.