Japan Job Openings Data Best in Over Two Decades

Japan’s job market showed strong signs of improvement in May, with one indicator rising to the highest level in nearly 22 years, underscoring continued progress in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to put the economy on a solid growth path.

As Japanese employers continue to add jobs, the jobs-to-applicants ratio for May hit 1.09, meaning that there were 109 jobs available for every 100 job seekers, its highest level since June 1992. The data showed the job market is tightening across a wide swath of the economy, from construction to auto manufacturing to education.

Unemployment also edged down to 3.5% in May from 3.6% a month earlier.  Meanwhile, inflation in Japan slowed slightly in May, in line with the Bank of Japan’s view that the pace of price growth will ease over the summer months before picking up again later in the year.

WSJ

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