Compared to a month earlier, the number of workers rose by 180,000 in March, while workers who were unemployed fell by 90,000 over the same month.
The ballooning cost to provide allowances for employees who take parental leave is causing fears of a fund shortage.
The government will soon initiate discussions on expanding the coverage of employee pensions and health insurance programmes to all workers.
Out of the 117 businesses surveyed by Kyodo News, 49 firms said that they will hire more fresh graduates starting next April.
Hitachi employees now have more flexibility to change and organise their schedules to work only four days a week.
Subramanian Ananthapadmanabhan has been appointed as Senior Vice President and Head of Midmarket, APJ.
The Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) has proposed the review of laws that would promote digitisation for organisations across the country.
All companies must inform their employees of the paternity leave system, and confirm with to-be fathers whether they want to take the leave.
About 37% of freelance workers surveyed expect their incomes to be lower than before the pandemic going forward.
The job availability ratio in February rose slightly to 1.21 from 1.20 in January, marking the second straight month of improvement.
As part of efforts to reduce gender inequality, the government is also considering having firms disclose the ratio of male workers on childcare leave.
The prime minister had previously called for a wider distribution of wealth, and urged companies to increase wages of their workers by 3% or more.
The central government will no longer require companies to identify employees who have had close contacts with coronavirus patients.
Inflation-adjusted real wages, a gauge of households’ purchasing power, increased 0.4% year-on-year in the month.
Currently, gig workers are considered self-employed and therefore not guaranteed a minimum wage or employment insurance.
The Japanese Trade Union Confederation wants businesses to define workplace rules related to the eligibility for remote work.
Instead, pay increases are more likely to come in the form of one-time bonuses, which may not lead to increased household spending
The educational programmes are slated to start in fiscal 2022, and are designed to improve the employability of Japanese workers.
Corporations have been spending less of their profits on wages since the end of the bubble economy about 30 years ago, a government study finds.
The ratio of job availability stood at 1.13 in 2021, indicating that there were 113 openings for every 100 jobseekers, down 0.05 points from 2020.
As of January 21, a total of 5.26 trillion yen (US$45.5 billion) had been distributed in employment subsidies.
In this year’s wage talks, Rengo is aiming for salary hikes of around 4%, including pay scale raises of around 2% and regular wage hikes.
Contrary to the Prime Minister’s call, the Japan Business Federation says it is difficult to set a blanket level of salary increases for all companies.
A specific target of pay hikes that member firms should adopt was not specified, considering the varying pace of earnings recovery of companies.
The goal of teleworking is to maintain the same level of socio-economic activities in a time when rapid spread of COVID-19 is expected.
Companies which are making profits are encouraged to increase workers’ salaries during the upcoming wage negotiations.
Panasonic Corp has joined a small, but growing, number of Japanese companies to offer staff a four-day workweek to encourage better work-life balance.
The ratio of eligible male workers who took childcare leave in fiscal 2020 exceeded 30% in 42 of the country’s 100 leading companies.
Japan’s major business organisations want companies to spur economic growth, and to view the pandemic as a business opportunity.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has reiterated his call to business groups and unions to "boldly reverse" a downtrend in workers' wages.
