The number of non-regular employees in Japan, which includes temporary workers, dispatch workers, contractors, part-time workers and others, stood at 20.75 million in June 2021, up 1.5% over the year according to data from Statistics Japan.

The number of ‘dispatched workers from temporary labour agencies’ decreased over the year by 2.1% to 1.39 million while the number of temporary workers overall increased by 0.2% to 4.31 million.

Meanwhile, Statistics Japan published labour market data that showed the unemployment rate stood at 2.9% on a seasonally adjusted basis. This was 0.1% lower when compared to the previous month.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the unemployment rate stood at 3.0%, up 0.2% compared to the previous month. The labour force participation rate stood at 62.4%, up 0.5% compared to the previous month.

Meanwhile, the job availability ratio improved to 1.13 from 1.09 a month earlier.