March 30, 1999

Kiyoshi SASAMORI
General Secretary
Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC-RENGO)

1. The Management and Coordination Agency today announced that in February, Japan's unemployment rate hit 4.6%, and the number of jobless reached 3.13 million, both record figures. Particularly noteworthy is the high number of people who lost jobs due to non-voluntary reasons, such as corporate bankruptcies and restructurings. There were as many as one million such jobless people in January, bearing the brunt of the sluggish economy and corporate mismanagement, and seeing their very livelihoods threatened.
   The ratio of effective job offers to job applications, which is a leading indicator of labor market conditions, remained flat at 0.49 in February. Several factors that will occur in March -- including new graduates unable to find jobs, and corporate restructurings implemented at the end of a fiscal year -- however, have raised fears that the number of unemployed people may increase further.
   
   
2. With Japan mired in a protracted recession since the bursting of the "bubble economy," and the economy battered by the government's mismanagement of economic policies, the nation's unemployment rate has stayed at a high 4.3-4.4% over the past year, since marking 4.1% in April 1998. The jobless rate's further rise to a new high of 4.6% in February is a clear indication that the series of comprehensive economic measures and job-creating measures announced by the government since last autumn have been inadequate both in concreteness and effectiveness. Given the fact that neither the jobless rate nor the ratio of job openings to job seekers has shown any improvement, the government should promptly take strong and effective measures to stimulate employment.
   
   
3. In terms of specific actions to deal with the severe employment situation, the government ought to immediately carry out measures for creating one million jobs, in accordance with the joint proposal which RENGO and the Japan Federation of Employers' Associations (Nikkeiren) made at a government-labor-management conference on employment measures, and move up the implementation of government-announced measures for creating 770,000 jobs in four specific areas, including information/telecommunications and health and welfare.
   In addition, in view of the plight of the jobless, the government should assist such people in finding new jobs by further expanding programs for manpower development, and education and training.
   The government should also devise ways to flexibly manage public support programs, through for example a temporary extension of the payment period of unemployment insurance benefits, in order to help the jobless during their lengthening searches for new jobs.
   
   
4. On the occasion of a government-labor meeting on March 29, RENGO urged Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi to strengthen employment measures. In light of the severe employment situation, RENGO urged the government anew to (1) coordinate and immediately implement the RENGO-Nikkeiren program for creating one million new jobs and the government's own program to create 770,000 new jobs, and (2) immediately compile a supplementary budget for FY1999 which includes employment measures. RENGO will continue to press the government to act promptly to realize these measures.