Re:Japan Shows the Way to Affordable Megacities (2014)
by ekianjo on Sunday May 07, 2017 @11:02AM
(#14285774)
> yet many many younger people work for as temps, which is sort of counterintuitive for a very tight labor market.
because many of these temps younger folks are university students at the same time. In japan university is only very few hours of attendance every week, so it leaves them with tons of free time to get a side-job.
Re:Japan Shows the Way to Affordable Megacities (2014)
by hudibras on Sunday May 07, 2017 @11:04AM
(#14285781)
The unemployment rate is actually 3.1% now, and they calculate the rate the same as all the other countries in the OECD.
Re:Japan Shows the Way to Affordable Megacities (2014)
by mdorazio on Sunday May 07, 2017 @11:01AM
(#14285763)
And yet that's the same way the US calculates unemployment for U3 (the most commonly reported rate), leading to the same misrepresentation of the actual unemployment situation.
Re:Japan Shows the Way to Affordable Megacities (2014)
by mc32 on Sunday May 07, 2017 @11:46AM
(#14286002)
Then I guess labor dynamics are different, else why does one see people doing low value add jobs like pachinko, vending machine stuffers, McDonald's, people "directing traffic" when they could get more meaningful jobs (if the job market is so good, esp. Tokyo)
Re:Japan Shows the Way to Affordable Megacities (2014)
by hudibras on Sunday May 07, 2017 @11:12AM
(#14285817)
U3 is standard precisely so that we can compare differences between countries. If people don't like what it's measuring, then they can certainly use one of the other metrics like U4, U5, or U6.
Re:Japan Shows the Way to Affordable Megacities (2014)
by mdorazio on Sunday May 07, 2017 @12:12PM
(#14286113)
I don't have a problem with U3 at all. I have a problem with it being used as the de facto measure of employment health in the media when it tells only a small part of the story for average workers. You typically have to search for U6 yourself, while U3 is reported by the press every month.
There used to be an Australian guy who went around buying and fixing undervalued houses in Japan. While out in his searches, he'd point out the many unoccupied houses.
As an aside, when is Japan going to reconsider how it calculates unemployment? As it is, their unemployment is like 3.7% yet many many younger people work for as temps, which is sort of counterintuitive for a very tight labor market.