30 August, 2002

Tadayoshi KUSANO
General Secretary
RENGO

1. The Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications announced today that the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.4 percent in July for the third consecutive month. This figure is at the critical level. The unemployment rate for young people came to 9.8 percent. Although the ratio of job offers to job seekers improved 0.01 point from June to a seasonally adjusted 0.54 in July, the number of jobless people is over 3.5 million. The number of jobless people who received insurance benefits updated worst ever with 1,177,000. The nation's employment situation remains severe, and economic policy is needed to be centered on the stability and creation of jobs.
   
   
2. However, the government is unwilling to implement employment measures backed up by supportive macroeconomic policies. The budgetary request for the 2003 fiscal year with a deadline today shows an increase in an occupational consciousness education programme for the youth, but does not show that the government is in the position to change its policies and to implement drastic employment measures.
   
   The Ministry released "the result of job seekers' survey" on 30 July 2002. 1,900,000 out of 3,740,000 jobless people at the average of April and May answered "no income". Only 770,000 or 20 percent of jobless people received employment insurance benefits.
   
   The results have failed to come up to public expectations as the government remains unable to devise appropriate measures to improve/strengthen social safety nets, averting its eyes from the severe employment situations and the living conditions of the unemployed.
   
   
3. Many people think that prospects of our economy are unpredictable and have the uneasiness to the future under such circumstance. It is necessary to develop the active labour market policy linking human resources development to the industrial policies.
   
   Rengo calls the government to implement urgent comprehensive employment measures and policies centering on 1) the implementation of job maintenance and creation measures such as a 1.2 million-job creation led by the central and local governments, 2) support for the jobless in finding new jobs including by extending the duration of unemployment benefits and 3) the improvement of support system for the jobless to find new jobs such as a vocational clinic at public job placement offices. Towards the forthcoming autumn extraordinary Diet session, Rengo will take an action for these measures to be cooperated into the supplementary budget.