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As conducting the survey became temporarily difficult in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures owing to the impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred in March 2011, these three prefectures are excluded from data on labor in 2011 (1. Labor Force - 3. Unemployment).
The labor force, defined as the sum of the employed and unemployed, numbered 62.61 million people in Japan in 2011, down 360,000 (0.6 percent) from the previous year.
Japan's labor force was on a continuous decline after recording a historical high of 67.93 million people in 1998. It showed growth from 2005 due to the increased labor force participation rate of, mainly, the elderly. In 2008, however, the figure started declining again because of the employment climate worsening as a result of the economic downturn. The labor force is expected to shrink in the long run as the falling birth rate and the aging population change the population composition.
The 2011 labor force participation rate (rate of the labor force to the population aged 15 years and over) was 59.3 percent (down 0.4 percentage point from the previous year). Observed by gender, the rate was 71.2 percent for men (down 0.4 percentage point) and 48.2 percent for women (down 0.3 percentage point).
The female labor force participation rate by age group shows an M-shaped curve. This curve indicates that women leave the labor force when they get married or give birth to a child and then rejoin the labor force after their child has grown and the burden of child-rearing is reduced. A comparison with the data from twenty years ago (1991) shows that, in 2011, the 35-39 age group replaced the 30-34 age group to form the bottom of the M-shaped curve. The participation rate rose by 14.7 percentage points in the 30-34 age group and by 4.9 percentage points in the 35-39 age group, resulting in a noticeable change in the bottom of the curve: it has become flatter and more gradual.
The number of employed persons in Japan had declined continuously since 1998, but it began to rise in 2004 and continued rising for four years in a row. However, a downward trend set in once again in 2008, which led to a decrease of 30,000 in 2011, from 59.80 million (56.7 percent of the population aged 15 years and over) in the previous year to 59.77 million (56.6 percent).
In 2011, the primary industry accounted for 3.8 percent of employment; the secondary industry, 24.9 percent; and the tertiary industry, 71.4 percent.
There was an obvious decline in the number of employed persons in the secondary industry, particularly in manufacturing. The decline continued for thirteen consecutive years from 1993 to 2005. The figure turned upward in 2006, but has been declining again since 2008.
In the tertiary industry, employment increased from the previous year by 230,000 in the "medical, health care and welfare" sector. Meanwhile, employment in "information and communications" and "accommodations, eating and drinking services" decreased by 70,000, respectively.
Depending on the industrial sector, a difference was seen in the employment tendency between men and women. In 2011, the percentage of male employment was highest in "electricity, gas, heat supply and water" (89.7 percent), followed by "construction" (86.0 percent) and "transport and postal activities" (82.0 percent). The percentage of female employment was highest in "medical, health care and welfare" (75.5 percent), followed by "accommodations, eating and drinking services" (61.1 percent) and "living-related and personal services and amusement services" (59.3 percent).
In terms of occupation, employment in the "manufacturing process workers" category has been declining in recent years, due to the overseas relocation of production sites and increased imports of manufactured goods. The number of "manufacturing process workers" was 8.55 million in 2011, down 1.6 percent from the previous year's 8.69 million. In contrast, the trend toward a service-oriented economy, the aging population, and improvements to the welfare services have contributed to a steady rise over the last few years in the number of "service workers" such as home-care workers. At the same time, the expansion of the information industry gave a steady boost to the number of "professional and engineering workers."
In 2011, percentages of male and female employees by occupation shows that men were particularly prominent among "construction and mining workers" (98.2 percent) and "transport and machine operation workers" (97.1 percent). Women were prominent among "service workers" (67.2 percent) and "clerical workers" (59.0 percent).
An observation of employment by patterns in Japan shows that the ratio of regular staff members has been on a declining trend since the 1980s, while that of non-regular staff members, including part-time workers and agency-dispatched workers, has increased. The latter figure soared from 1995 to 2008. It went down in 2009 due to the deteriorating economy, it started going up again in 2010.
In 2011, there were 49.18 million employees (excluding company executives), of whom 17.33 million, or 35.2 percent, were non-regular staff members. The ratio of non-regular staff members among all male employees was 19.9 percent, while the corresponding ratio for females was 54.7 percent, revealing a large difference between the genders.
A breakdown of non-regular staff members by age group shows that among men, many young and elderly men are employed as non-regular staff members relative to other age groups. Among women, the older the age group is, the greater the non-regular staff ratio is.
Factors behind the rise in non-regular staff members include labor cost-cutting and the trend where seeking work-ready, pre-trained workers was preferred to developing human resources by hiring new graduates. As a result, there was a change in terms of employment patterns in that non-regular staff members increased, particularly among young people.
The employment rate of new graduates had been worsening as a result of the economic slowdown since 2008, but their employment situation showed a sign of improvement in 2012.
In 2011 the unemployed numbered 2.84 million persons, down 10.4 percent from the previous year. The unemployment rate was 4.5 percent, down 0.5 percentage point from the previous year.
After the ratio of job offers to job seekers peaked out in 2006, it was on a falling trend in recent years. The ratio has been increasing since 2009 and is gradually recovering.
A breakdown by gender shows that the unemployment rate in 2011 was 4.8 percent among men, and 4.1 percent among women. The unemployment rate has been higher among men for fourteenth consecutive years since 1998.
The unemployment rate was seen as notably higher in younger age groups than in other age groups, in men and women alike.
Analyzing the total number of unemployed in 2011 (2.84 million people), by reasons for job-seeking, the major reasons were: (i) involuntarily dismissed due to corporate or business circumstances, or reaching retirement age limit, 1.06 million persons; (ii) voluntarily left their jobs for personal or family reasons, 0.97 million persons; (iii) new job seekers due to the necessity to earn income, 0.37 million; and (iv) new job seekers just graduated from schools, 0.15 million.
In terms of the duration of unemployment, most were unemployed for "1 year or more" (1.09 million persons), followed by "less than 3 months" (0.84 million persons). The younger a job seeker is, the shorter the job-seeking period tends to be; on the other hand, the older a person, the longer the job-seeking period tends to be.
In 2011, the monthly average of total hours worked was 145.6 per regular employee (in establishments with five or more regular employees), down 0.4 percent from the previous year, multiplied by 12, this amounts to an annual average of 1,747 hours.
Of the total monthly hours worked, 135.6 were scheduled working hours, representing a down of 0.4 percent from the previous year. Non-scheduled work such as overtime work averaged 10.0 hours per month, representing the same level as the previous year. Working days averaged 19.0 days per month in 2011.
In 2011, the monthly average of total cash earnings per regular employee (in establishments with five or more regular employees) was 317,000 yen. This total amount includes 262,000 yen in "contractual cash earnings" (which include "scheduled cash earnings" plus "non-scheduled cash earnings" for working overtime, on holidays and late at night, as well as other allowances), and 54,000 yen in "special cash earnings" (which include summer and year-end bonuses, payments to celebrate employees' marriages, etc.).
Generally, the average earnings (scheduled cash earnings) in Japan go up with age until roughly the 40s to mid-50s are reached and then declines. This reflects one characteristic of Japan's seniority employment system in which salaries are determined mainly on the basis of employment duration. Into the 1990s, an increasing number of enterprises reviewed their salary system, resulting in more widespread introduction of a merit-based pay system placing emphasis on performance. There has been a trend in recent years, particularly among large enterprises, to value the practice of long-term employment once again and attach importance to job execution skills.
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