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160,000 temps to lose jobs
Fri, Feb 27, 2009
TOKYO - ALMOST 160,000 temporary workers will have lost their jobs in the half year to March as companies trim payrolls in recession-hit Japan, the government said on Friday.
'I regard this as an extremely serious situation,' Labour Minister Yoichi Masuzoe told parliament. 'We will do our utmost to help their job searches, offering job training and preparing places for them to live.'
From October to March, 157,806 temporary workers have lost or are expected to lose their jobs, the labour ministry said - a sharp rise from a November prediction of 30,067 for the six-month period.
During the same time a total of 9,973 regular employees were also expected to be laid off, the ministry said.
Many Japanese companies switched to employing temporary workers as the country emerged from its decade-long downturn of the 1990s, but amid the current slump they have often been the first to be laid off.
Because many temporary workers live in company dormitories, some also become homeless when they lose their jobs.
Japan is reeling from the full force of a worldwide economic downturn that has caused demand for Japanese cars and high-tech goods to crumble, putting the country on course for its worst economic slump since World War II.
The government on Friday said Japanese industrial output plunged 10 per cent month-on-month in January, even worse than what had been a record 9.8 percent fall in December.
'The Japanese economy is crumbling because of its massive dependency on exports,' said Yoshiki Shinke, senior economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. 'Japan will only see a recovery when the economies of its export markets recover.'
Once seen as relatively immune to the global financial turmoil, Asia's largest economy is becoming one of the biggest victims, as the export engine that drove the country?s post-war economic miracle grinds to a halt.
It is a dramatic turn of events for a nation whose corporate icons such as Sony and Toyota have conquered global markets but are now facing huge losses and firing thousands of workers.
Fri, Feb 27, 2009
TOKYO - ALMOST 160,000 temporary workers will have lost their jobs in the half year to March as companies trim payrolls in recession-hit Japan, the government said on Friday.
'I regard this as an extremely serious situation,' Labour Minister Yoichi Masuzoe told parliament. 'We will do our utmost to help their job searches, offering job training and preparing places for them to live.'
From October to March, 157,806 temporary workers have lost or are expected to lose their jobs, the labour ministry said - a sharp rise from a November prediction of 30,067 for the six-month period.
During the same time a total of 9,973 regular employees were also expected to be laid off, the ministry said.
Many Japanese companies switched to employing temporary workers as the country emerged from its decade-long downturn of the 1990s, but amid the current slump they have often been the first to be laid off.
Because many temporary workers live in company dormitories, some also become homeless when they lose their jobs.
Japan is reeling from the full force of a worldwide economic downturn that has caused demand for Japanese cars and high-tech goods to crumble, putting the country on course for its worst economic slump since World War II.
The government on Friday said Japanese industrial output plunged 10 per cent month-on-month in January, even worse than what had been a record 9.8 percent fall in December.
'The Japanese economy is crumbling because of its massive dependency on exports,' said Yoshiki Shinke, senior economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. 'Japan will only see a recovery when the economies of its export markets recover.'
Once seen as relatively immune to the global financial turmoil, Asia's largest economy is becoming one of the biggest victims, as the export engine that drove the country?s post-war economic miracle grinds to a halt.
It is a dramatic turn of events for a nation whose corporate icons such as Sony and Toyota have conquered global markets but are now facing huge losses and firing thousands of workers.
