Unemployment rate hits a record high of 5.6 percent

Japan's unemployment rate for December 2001 was an all-time high of 5.6 percent, the worst since 1953 when the government survey started.

The Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications said on January 29 that the unemployment rate has continued to reach new records for four months in a row and that the average unemployment rate in 2001 was 5.0 percent.

Asked about the deteriorating employment situation, Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro said, "It is natural that reform goes hand in hand with pains."

Finance Minister Shiokawa Masajuro said, "Private companies now understand that they should make their own efforts to get over economic difficulties. The employment situation will continue to be like this for one or two more years."

The National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) and the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) demanded that major companies accept their social responsibility and make efforts to stabilize employment.

Zenroren Secretary General Bannai Mitsuo said that the government should instruct major companies to review their personnel reduction plans and take urgent steps to provide jobs to job seekers.

Rengo Secretary General Kusano Tadayoshi called on the government to change its policy into one of taking measures to deal with unemployment as the key to the improvement of the economic situation. (end)