Japan’s non-regular employees, which includes temporary workers, dispatch workers, contractors, part-time workers and others, totalled 20.78 million in March 2022, up 0.7% when compared to the same period a year ago, according to data from Statistics Japan.

The number of ‘dispatched workers from temporary labour agencies’ reported an increase of 3.6% over the year and stood at a total of 1.42 million while the number of temporary workers overall increased by 1.8% to 4.48 million.

Statistics Japan also published labour market data that showed the unemployment rate stood at 2.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis, down 0.1% compared to the previous month and steady compared to the previous year.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the jobless rate also stood at 2.6%, down 0.1% when compared to the previous year.

Japan’s labour force participation rate stood at 62.1%, up 0.2% compared to the previous year.

The number of employed persons in March 2022 totalled 66.84 million, down 0.2% compared to the previous year.

By sector, the information and communications sector reported an increase of 3.9% over the year. On the other hand, the finance and insurance sector reported a decrease of 4.4%.

The country’s job-to-applicant ratio for the year through March rose 0.06% to 1.16. The ratio means there were 116 job openings for every 100 job seekers.