The number of non-regular employees in Japan, which includes temporary workers, dispatch workers, contractors, part-time workers and others, stood at 20.61 million in May 2021, up 0.8% over the year according to data from Statistics Japan.

The number of ‘dispatched workers from temporary labour agencies’ increased over the year by 0.7% to 1.38 million while the number of temporary workers overall decreased by 1.4% to 4.15 million.

Meanwhile, Statistics Japan published labour market data that showed the unemployment rate stood at 3.0% on a seasonally adjusted basis. This was 0.1% higher than the same period in 2020 as well as 0.2% higher compared to the previous month.

The number of employed persons increased by 0.2% over the year to 66.67 million. By industry, the biggest increase was seen in medical, health care and welfare.

The job to applicant ratio for May stood at 1.09.