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News Bulletin May 26, 2014
RECENT RELEASE
2013 Unemployment rate decreased by 0.3 points
Introduction
The SBJ released the 2013 yearly average results (Basic Tabulation) on January 31, 2014.
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is conducted to provide monthly data on the employment and unemployment situation covering the population aged 15 years old and over. The LFS is mainly used for evaluating economic conditions and making labour policies in Japan.
The SBJ revised the LFS by introducing new questionnaires and enhancing tables in January 2013 in order to more accurately grasp the employment/unemployment situation. For details, please refer to "Revision of the Labour Force Survey from January 2013"(http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/roudou/pdf/130201.pdf)(PDF:191KB)
Employment
The annual average number of employed persons in 2013 was 63.11 million, an increase of 410 thousand from the previous year.
With regard to the number of employed persons by industries, "Medical, health care and welfare" and "Compound services" increased from the previous year, while "Manufacturing" and "Construction" decreased.
The annual average number of the labour force was 65.77 million, an increase of 220 thousand from the previous year. The annual average labour force participation rate was 59.3%.
Note: In the new questionnaires, in order to provide a more precise estimation of labour input in each industry, dispatched workers are requested to provide the information on the establishments which they are dispatched to, while in the old questionnaires, they were requested to provide the information on the establishments which they register with. When calculating "change over the year" by industry during 2013, new "dispatched-base" figures are converted into those of former "dispatching-base", which is "Service, N.E.C.", and then compared with the data of the previous year.
Unemployment
The annual average number of unemployed persons in 2013 was 2.65 million, a decrease of 200 thousand from the previous year. The number of unemployed persons who "Quit their job involuntarily" * was 900 thousand, a decrease of 120 thousand from the previous year.
The annual average unemployment rate in 2013 was 4.0%, a decrease of 0.3 points from the previous year.
Unemployed Persons and Unemployment Rate
Note: * Those who "Quit their job involuntarily" are those who quit their job because of "Mandatory retirement, termination of employment contract" and "Circumstances of employer or business".
(Source)Labour Force Survey(SBJ)
The annual average figures in 2013 were released on January 31, 2014, and the Annual Report will be published in May.
For further details, see the web site below.
http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/roudou/index.htm
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