The Economics and Statistics Division maintains archives of previous publications for accountability purposes, but makes no updates to keep these documents current with the latest data revisions from Statistics Canada. As a result, information in older documents may not be accurate. Please exercise caution when referring to older documents. For the latest information and historical data, please contact the individual listed to the right.
<--- Return to Archive
For additional information relating to this article, please contact:
May 29, 2020JAPAN LABOUR FORCE SURVEY, APRIL 2020 
In April 2020, Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate edged up to 2.6 per cent. The impacts of COVID-19 are apparent in Japan's labour market, but the magnitude of the shock appears to be more moderate than observed in other advanced economies. Over the last month, Japan's labour force fell by 1.4 per cent while employment declined by 1.6 per cent. Compared to April 2019, Japan's labour force fell by 1.0 per cent and employment declined by 1.2 per cent.
Before this month, Japan's unemployment rate had remained in a range of 2.2 to 2.5 per cent since the beginning of 2018.
The impacts of COVID-19 are much more apparent on Canada's labour market results for March than observed in the Japanese data. Canada and Nova Scotia experienced unprecented declines for both labour force and employment. With less restrictions in place because of COVID-19, Japan's labour force and employment declines were nowhere near as sharp.
Statistics Bureau of Japan, Statistics Canada. Table 14-10-0287-01 Labour force characteristics, monthly, seasonally adjusted and trend-cycle
<--- Return to Archive
