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Japan Times
23-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
98% of new graduates in Japan are able to land jobs
The employment rate for March 2025 graduates of higher educational institutions stood at 98% as of April 1, the second highest on record, Japanese government data showed Friday. The rate, only 0.1 percentage point shy of the current all-time high, marked a year earlier, tied with those for 2018 and 2020 graduates, according to the data, compiled jointly by the education and labor ministries. "Now that damage from the COVID crisis is almost gone, companies are eager to hire (fresh graduates)," a labor ministry official said. Continued pay hikes on top of serious manpower shortages were also attributed to the high employment figure. The data showed more specifically that, of the recent graduates who landed jobs, men accounted for 97.6% and women 98.5% while earners of humanities degrees made up 98.2% and those of science degrees 97.3%. The two ministries jointly conducted the employment situation survey on 6,250 randomly picked job-seeking students who graduated in March from 112 national and private universities, colleges and other higher educational institutions. The survey also found that the job placement rate for university graduates in Kanto came highest by region at 98.7%.
Japan Times
09-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Japan's nominal wage growth slows, backing case for BOJ caution
Growth in nominal wages slowed more than expected in March, adding to the case for the Bank of Japan to proceed cautiously with interest-rate hikes as economic risks at home and abroad continue to mount. Nominal cash earnings rose 2.1% from a year earlier, decelerating from a revised 2.7% pace in February and below a median economist forecast of 2.5%, the labor ministry reported Friday. In a discouraging sign for spending, real wages continued to fall, underscoring a persistent decline in household purchasing power. A more stable metric that helps smooth out sampling fluctuations showed that base salaries for full-time workers gained by 2%. While the figures alone aren't likely to be weak enough to derail the BOJ from its tightening campaign, combined with other factors including the tariff war, the data may add to the case for caution in the near term. Gov. Kazuo Ueda reiterated the central bank's commitment to raise borrowing costs if its economic outlook unfolds as expected, while describing uncertainty as "extremely high' and highlighting his cautious stance. As widely anticipated, the BOJ left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.5% at the conclusion of the two-day gathering in a unanimous decision. While the central bank pushed back the timeline for reaching its inflation target, Ueda emphasized that the adjustment doesn't necessarily imply a delay in future rate hikes.
