IN BRIEF : Japan Joblessness Drops to 2.3%
TOKYO — Japan’s December unemployment rate was 2.3%, the lowest monthly figure for more than six years and a 0.1 percentage-point decline from November, the Management & Coordination Agency announced today. The average jobless rate for all of 1988 fell to a six-year low of 2.5%, down 0.3 point from 1987.
Japanese workers totaled 60.02 million as of December, an increase of 900,000 from December, 1987, the agency said.
Manufacturers began to worry about hiring enough employees in December, said Hitoshi Okuda, a senior economist with NRI & NCC Co., Nomura Securities Co.’s research arm.
“Makers are already worried about higher wages and subsequent domestic inflation this year,” he said. But Okuda predicted that annual wage increases, effective April, will average 5.2%, slightly lower than the increase in productivity.
“My opinion is that manufacturers and economists are unduly worried about inflation,” he said.
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