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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tito L. Nisperos Jr. who wrote (54817)	10/30/2001 5:44:59 PM
From: Tito L. Nisperos Jr.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

More people out of work --- this time in Japan "Unable to keep up with competition from Asian rivals, big-name companies such as Sony Corp. and NEC Corp. are seeing profits evaporate into losses. Even the Japanese are rapidly shifting production to China and other parts of Asia, where highly skilled workers can manufacture goods at lower costs." The rest of the report from Today, ABS-CBN, Manila: --- Tuesday, October 30, 2001 11:17 PM ZE8 Japan jobless rate at record high By YURI KAGEYAMA The Associated Press TOKYO-Just two months after hitting a record high, Japan's unemployment jumped to a new record 5.3 percent in September as the worldwide slowdown continued to batter the nation's export-dependent economy. The report from the government Tuesday was far worse than the 5.1 percent analysts had expected. In July Japan's jobless rate hit 5 percent-then the highest since the government began keeping track in the 1950s. The unemployment rate stayed at 5 percent in August. The US jobless rate in September stood at 4.9 percent. Japan is struggling to pull itself out of a 10-year economic slowdown, but has yet to change what is at the root of the problem-an old-style economy that relies on public works spending and exports of mass-produced items to keep growing. "It's hard to find a job when I don't have any qualifications. I know how to use the abacus, and I have a driver's license. That's about it," said Akira Okawa, 58, who has held only odd jobs since his garment factory closed eight years ago, losing work to China and other overseas nations. Matters here have taken a turn for the worse recently with the downturn in the United States, where hopes for recovery were dashed by the September 11 terrorist attacks. Economy Minister Heizo Takenaka acknowledged the jump in the unemployment rate from August to September was drastic. The last time there was a bigger leap was more than 30 years ago in March 1967, when the rate rose 0.5 percent to 1.6 percent. Government officials said they no longer had records to explain what was behind that isolated surge. "We haven't seen anything like this before," said Chris Walker, senior economist at Credit Suisse First Boston Securities in Tokyo. "It just seems to be the way things are going to be for a while." For decades of modernization after World War II, Japan boasted unemployment rates at 1 percent and 2 percent levels by sticking to a simple economic model-mass producing things for export. That model is now obsolete. Major Japanese electronics companies-the backbone of this country's economic power-have all announced job cuts by the thousands. Unable to keep up with competition from Asian rivals, big-name companies such as Sony Corp. and NEC Corp. are seeing profits evaporate into losses. Even the Japanese are rapidly shifting production to China and other parts of Asia, where highly skilled workers can manufacture goods at lower costs. The number of people without jobs rose in September to a record-high 3.57 million, up 370,000, or 11.6 percent, from 3.2 million the same month a year ago. The jobless number totaled 3.36 million in August. The number of people with jobs in September totaled 63.96 million, down 840,000, or 1.3 percent, from the same month a year ago. Jobholders in manufacturing fell 4.9 percent, those in construction dropped 4.3 percent and those in the service sector declined 4.1 percent. About 1.3 million, or more than a third of the unemployed, left their jobs voluntarily, the government said. Japanese management often resorts to indirect ways of pushing people out of their jobs, such as assigning them to dead-end tasks. Layoffs are viewed as extremely damaging for corporate image in Japan. Hiromi Sakata, 25, walked out of her job at an oil wholesale company when its profits fell so much it simply stopped paying the twice-a-year bonus, which generally makes up about half a worker's salary in Japan. "I want to find a job soon," she said while job-hunting at a Tokyo office. "The company said I was the problem for quitting, but I had to tell them they were the problem." Japan's political leadership has yet to map out a visible growth strategy. Although the government has announced help for the jobless and efforts to create public jobs, it is uncertain whether they will provide stable growth. "Unemployment is going to go up," said Yasunari Ueno, chief economist at Mizuho Securities. "The government hasn't set a clear direction." On Monday the central bank said the outlook was so bad Japan likely won't be out of a recession until March 2003. "The government will do all it can to tackle unemployment," said top government spokesman Yasuo Fukuda. TODAY