Japan: Employment firm in Apr-Jun - Nomura

Japan’s employment data for June shows that the number of employed persons was down - 0.4% m-m, marking a second month of declines, and the unemployment rate was also up 0.2ppt m-m to 2.4%, notes the research team at Nomura.

Key Quotes

“Seen in isolation, the data suggests that the employment environment has worsened, but we do not believe that pessimism is necessarily warranted as the employment environment has improved sharply since the start of 2018 and this looks to us like a mere correction in the rate of improvement.”

“If we look at data for Apr-Jun, the number of employed persons was up considerably at +0.6% qq, and the average unemployment rate during that period was 2.4%, suggesting that labor supply-demand is tight.”