The unemployment rate increased dramatically over about a decade. This increase is especially high in the prefectures in the Tohoku and Kinki regions. When the relation between employment situation and industrial structure is examined, those regions with a higher share of manufacturing experience a low unemployment rate. The increased unemployment rate was contributed by the population growth in the first half of the 1990s and the decrease of workers in the latter half. While the number of manufacturing workers decreased throughout the 1990s, the number of construction workers, which had supported the total employment, also decreased from the latter half of the 1990s, resulting in a decline of the number of workers on the whole. The decrease of manufacturing workers may have been influenced by the globalizing economy, and was high in some industrial agglomeration areas. The influence, however, varies between areas; strongly competitive export businesses did not experience any great decline in the number of employees. Number of service workers, on the other hand, is increasing in every region, especially in the field of aged-care service. While manufacturing industry is still expected to support employment to some extent, it is important to create jobs in services and other industries that meets regional demands and support a smooth transition of labour from manufacturing and construction. |