Japan’s non-regular employees, which includes temporary workers, dispatch workers, contractors, part-time workers and others, totalled 21.33 million in September 2022, up 3.0% 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 6.4% over the year and stood at a total of 1.49 million while the number of temporary workers overall increased by 6.2% to 4.66 million.

Further labour market data also showed that the unemployment rate stood at 2.7%, down 0.1% over the year but up 0.1% compared to the previous month.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the unemployment rate stood at 2.6%, up 0.1% compared to the previous month and down 0.2% compared to the previous year.

Japans’ job availability ratio rose 0.02 points from the previous month to 1.34.