Economic Research Department Executive Research Fellow
Taro Saito（）
研究領域：
研究・専門分野
2000年06月01日
関連カテゴリ
1. Introduction
Japan’s unemployment situation remains grim. The unemployment rate， though slightly improved from its high， remains in the mid 4% range， while the effective job openings-to-seekers ratio has settled below 0.5.
However， in addition to the high level of unemployment， a disturbing trend has been the grow-ing loss of jobs due to corporate bankruptcy and restructuring. As a result， the unemployment severity index – which measures qualitative aspects of unemployment – has risen steeply since 1998， indicating that unemployed persons are experiencing greater financial distress.
While the economy shows signs of recovery， unemployment appears unlikely to improve sig-nificantly in quantitative terms. However， the severity index points out some important quali-tative changes occurring in the unemployment situation.