Japan Press Weekly

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2016 June 1 - 7 [LABOR]

Part-time jobs for male workers increase while full-time jobs decline

The number of men working part-time increased by 44% last year compared to 2002. In contrast, the number of men working full-time reduced by 10% in the same period of time.

The internal ministry’s recently-released survey on the workforce shows that the number of male part-timers aged between 25 and 54 was 2.28 million in 2015, up 700,000 from 2002. On the other hand, full-time jobs for male workers of the same age range decreased to 17.39 million from 19.16 million.

The number of female workers on non-regular contracts also increased to 13.45 million last year from10.21 million fourteen years ago. The rate of increase for women, however, is lower than that for men aged 25-54 years.

The survey results indicate a trend in which many employers replace male full-time employees in this age range with part-timers.

Looking at male workers aged 65 and older, the number of those who work on part-time contracts went up to 1.48 million in 2015 from 600,000 in 2002, but the number of men in this age bracket working full-time also increased.

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has claimed that the increase in the number of women and elderly workers causes the rising number of non-regular employment.

Past related articles:
> Gov’t data provides evidence of failure of ‘Abenomics’ [February 17 & 18, 2016]
> JCP Fujino: Abenomics causes serious damage to people’s livelihoods [February 6, 2016]