The number of Japan’s non-regular employees, which includes temporary workers, dispatch workers, contractors, part-time workers and others, totalled 21.43 million in July 2023, up 1.8% when compared to the same period a year ago, according to data from Statistics Japan.

Further data from Statistics Japan also found that the number of ‘dispatched workers from temporary labour agencies’ declined by 7.5% over the year and stood at a total of 1.48 million while the number of temporary workers overall increased by 6.1% to 4.84 million.

Meanwhile, Japan’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 2.7%, up 0.2% over the month and up 0.1% when compared to the same period a year ago.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the unemployment rate stood at 2.6%, up 0.1% over the year.

The total number of unemployed persons stood at 1.83 million, up 4.0% over the year.

At the same time, the number of employed persons stood at 67.72 million, up 0.3% year.

By sector, the number of employed persons saw the biggest annual increase in the accommodations, eating and drinking services (3.8%), construction sector (3.5%), and medical, health care and welfare (3.5%). On the other hand, the steepest declines were seen in the agriculture and forestry sector (-8.5%) and finance and insurance (-6.7%).

Japan’s job availability ratio decreased by 0.01 over the month to 1.29 in July.