Japan's jobless rate hit a record high for the third straight month in November as the nation's lurch into recession forced companies to shed more workers.
Government data released today showed that 5.5 per cent of the workforce was out of a job and economists said a rise to six per cent was likely by mid-2002 as the global economy continues to reel from the September 11th attacks.
"We're seeing a higher number of people leaving their jobs involuntarily. Most of them are male, aged 45 to 54, heads of households," a government official said, highlighting the unraveling of Japan's once sacrosanct jobs-for-life system.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Japan's largest heavy machinery maker, is a recent example. On Wednesday it announced 4,000 job cuts in a workforce of 37,000 over the next four years.
"The manufacturing sector in particular seems to be cutting its workforce quite rapidly," said Mr Tsurukazu Nakamura, an economist at Fuji Research Institute.
"Manufacturers still have an excessive workforce and we'll likely see them shed more employees, especially toward the end of the fiscal year in March," Mr Nakamura said.
Unemployment has risen steadily from 4.9 per cent at the start of 2001, reaching 5.4 per cent in October.
Mounting unemployment has been sapping already-sluggish consumption and weighing on consumer prices, which have fallen for more than two years.
Today’s data showed nationwide consumer prices down 0.8 per cent in November from a year earlier, a 26th straight month of decline, while Tokyo area CPI, released a month before nationwide figures, fell 1.0 per cent in December, down for the 27th month.
Japan's economy tumbled into recession in the third quarter of this year, recording a contraction of 0.5 percent in July-September after a fall of 1.2 percent in April-June.