Tag Archives: Japanese labour market

The growth in retail sales slowed slightly in July, but a strong labour market and the rise in aggregate wages should continue to boost consumer spending.Following a strong rebound in Q2, the momentum behind consumer spending in Japan seems to have moderated somewhat in July. Retail sales in Japan grew by 1.9% y-o-y, down slightly from 2.2% in June and 2.5% in Q2.Despite the softer momentum, the recovery in Japan’s consumer sector, which started roughly in the second half of 2016, may...

Japan presents the paradox of a tight labour market, yet little wage pressure. While there are a number of reasons for this, we still believe wage growth will feed into Japanese inflation figures.The unemployment rate dropped to 2.8% in April 2017, the lowest in more than two decades, with 148 jobs for every 100 job seekers, a level that has not been seen since the early 1970s. What’s puzzling, however, is that the tightness in the labour market appears to have put very little pressure on...

Despite the lack of wage growth, yen weakening and higher commodity prices mean inflation in Japan may start to move higher.The labour survey for October shows that wage growth remains sluggish in Japan, despite increasing signs of tightness in the labour market. Nonetheless, inflation in Japan may start to move higher on account of external factors such as the exchange rate and commodity prices.Japanese workers’ cash earnings rose by just 0.1% year-over-year in October. Earnings have been...