Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by n1 on Wednesday May 31 2017, @11:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the jobs-for-the-boys dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

The labor shortage in Japan is at its highest in more than four decades, according to new government data. Low birth rates and an aging population have resulted in a shrinking workforce.

There are currently 1.48 jobs for every applicant, the highest figure since 1974 when fast growth drove the ratio to 1.53. The data outpaces the labor shortage peak in the early 1990s, during the country's period of economic stagnation.

[...] The analyst said the number of women and older people who have been joining the labor force has increased, as "the labor shortage is forcing companies to hire people who previously weren't looking for work."

Source: RT

[T]he number of families living on an income lower than the public welfare assistance level more than doubled in the 20 years after the asset price bubble popped in 1992, according to a study by Kensaku Tomuro of Yamagata University.

Now 16 percent of Japanese children live below the poverty line, according to Health Ministry statistics, but among single-parent families, the rate hits 55 percent. Poverty rates in Osaka are among the worst.

[...] Children of single or poor parents often are ostracized in their communities, Tokumaru said, noting that other parents do not want their children playing with children from a "bad house."

Source: The Washington Post


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @11:43AM (21 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @11:43AM (#518215)

    If companies are desperately looking for employees, shouldn't the wages go up, and therefore the number of people with low income go down?

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +3  
       Insightful=2, Interesting=1, Total=3
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday May 31 2017, @12:18PM (6 children)

    by MostCynical (2589) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @12:18PM (#518223) Journal

    article doesn't say how many of the jobs pay 'proper' wages.

    are the Japanese starting to open Indian-style call centres?

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by zocalo on Wednesday May 31 2017, @12:54PM (5 children)

      by zocalo (302) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @12:54PM (#518243)
      Nor does it say what the unemployment figures are, or how the available skills correlates with the sectors where the jobs are being advertised. A scenario with the bulk of the population employed in low-paying jobs where there are no real recruitment issues, but lacking the skills/qualifications necessary for the higher paying jobs where there are vacancies would lead to the sitation being described. That doesn't really fit with the notion that Far Eastern education systems are generally superior to their Western equivalents though as that would imply that Japan should - and apparently does - have a generally well education population, unless the employment problem is more specific and down to a lack of education in the skills that are in demand.

      Maybe the root cause of the poverty problem is more simple though; they have a population skewed heavily towards the older generations, with more and more living on post-retirement welfare funded by taxes paid by a shrinking workforce as it ages out due to more retirees each year than new workers. Presumably that means ever higher taxes to support all the social services required, plus any additional expenses to make up for the inevitable shortfall in social security for parents/grandparents, meaning that there just isn't enough money left to get families above the poverty line.
      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by MostCynical on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:08PM (3 children)

        by MostCynical (2589) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:08PM (#518250) Journal

        The country is expected to lose more than one-third of its population by 2060, according to one article I read.
        So.. no real estate capital gains, no housing pressure, and a falling GDP and tax base.
        They can't jack up export prices, or people won't buy (especially with competition from Indonesia and China)

        Wages can't go anywhere but down, with decreasing local demand for goods and services from the decreasing population and the decreasing wages (yay, feedback loop)...Add those increasing taxes, and even people working in "good" jobs will eventually fall below the povery line.

        --
        "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:18PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:18PM (#518258) Journal

          So.. no real estate capital gains, no housing pressure, and a falling GDP and tax base.

          In other words, falling cost of living. This sort of environment boosts wages relative to the cost of living rather than the other way around.

        • (Score: 2, Interesting) by shrewdsheep on Wednesday May 31 2017, @02:25PM (1 child)

          by shrewdsheep (5215) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @02:25PM (#518297)

          Wages can't go anywhere but down, with decreasing local demand for goods and services from the decreasing population and the decreasing wages (yay, feedback loop)...Add those increasing taxes, and even people working in "good" jobs will eventually fall below the povery line.

          That's a common fallacy. Falling GDP does not imply falling wages. Wages are related to productivity and demand/supply. Both factors are favoring higher wages in Western countries in the long run.

          • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @07:43PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @07:43PM (#518481)

            Agree that falling GDP does not necessitate falling wages, but wages haven't been following productivity to any meaningful degree for decades.

      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:20PM

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:20PM (#518260)

        but lacking the skills/qualifications necessary for the higher paying jobs where there are vacancies would lead to the sitation being described.

        I read a traditional American article on that narrative just yesterday, I think it was Reuters or a link to some place in Wisconsin.

        Anyway the narrative was boating season starts Memorial Day for many people and boats can't get fixed because during the great recession so many powerboat mechanics quit the field and now there's great high paying jobs that no one will sign up for.

        However, in more detail, the article claims high paying so I'm thinking its like my retired stationary diesel mechanic cousin who pulled in $150K/yr because he had 40 yrs experience and worked a lot of overtime, but the guy who fixes outboard boat motors "might get up to $50/yr" which in journalist talk means they found one small business owner who had one amazing year once in the 80s and never gain, so the reality in the comments is a new employee at an average employer might take home as much as $30K before paying for his tools and education. And of course the tech schools have a year long training program that costs $15K total. And the manufacturers charge thousands for brand specific training that may or may not be required for your job.

        So the reality is you need one year of life expenses in the bank plus $15K and a huge amount of dedication and then pay is so bad you'll earn less than working at McDonalds.

        Needless to say the only outboard motor mechanics left in the field are crazy or too lazy to get a higher paying job or have interesting work history problems preventing them from getting a real job or have wedged themselves into the even smaller subsector of high paying work (I donno racing boat support or historical restoration work maybe)

        There's nobody dumb enough and rich enough to become an outboard motor mechanic for $14/hr or less and thats somehow a crisis.

        Meanwhile using typical shop formulas like "triple the labor cost for the customer" none of the customers can afford work done by a $30/hr mechanic because they can't pay $100/hr while working at menial labor because their job went away.

        The general impression I got from the comments is the whole powerboating thing much like RV life is to suck the last financial blood out of the rich white boomers and when they're gone the whole industry is going away with them. Also like mcmansion construction, or mall womens clothing stores, or major league baseball, for other examples of once the boomers are gone the country is going to be too poor to support the existing industry so its all going away.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Wednesday May 31 2017, @12:32PM (12 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 31 2017, @12:32PM (#518229)

    And its not, so you can tell its fake news. Note the careful lack of detail.

    Admittedly its about 18 months old, but "demographic driven" things like this don't change very fast

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-04/victory-abenomics-japans-real-wages-just-plunged-most-six-years [zerohedge.com]

    The cumulative graph of jobs seems to imply they need to eat about 3 million part time jobs into full time just to catch up to the good old days of '08

    The per capita wages graph is pretty interesting, they need to boost wages about 10% inflation adjusted just to catch back up to 1991.

    Usually propaganda like this is generated when they're offering minimum wage for board certified neurosurgeons and they're all offended that desperate people aren't lining up around the block to apply. How dare those lowly workers not be desperate! How Dare Them! Let them eat cake!

    Aside from when and why they're written, usually you get propaganda pieces like this published in the news, when they need positive sounding filler. So the real story is there is no interesting news to report so you get filler.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by wisnoskij on Wednesday May 31 2017, @12:43PM (2 children)

      by wisnoskij (5149) <reversethis-{moc ... ksonsiwnohtanoj}> on Wednesday May 31 2017, @12:43PM (#518235)

      This.
      The article is just to set the stage for a following article about how Japan has to open its doors to immigration to save the economy.

      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:02PM (1 child)

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:02PM (#518247)

        I'd agree with that assessment.

        "If we replace our people with Chinese, and replace our government with a provincial Chinese government, then we will be super successful"

        Who is this "we" exactly?

        And whats so wrong with the Japanese people themselves, that they need to self genocide themselves in order to "win"? We nuked them twice before we found out about tentacle pr0n, so they can expect a couple more mushroom clouds for that, but even tentacle pr0n doesn't deserve intentional cultural genocide.

        A lot of racial supremacist beliefs are embedded in the support of immigration.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @04:18PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @04:18PM (#518353)

          I think this is one rare time I agree with your analysis.

          Just have one nitpick. It's not racial supremacist beliefs. It's the belief that people raised in any and all cultures are interchangeable cogs. I don't know that it fits with racism, but it strikes me as just as bad a racism, maybe even worse. It's replacing human diversity with some kind of commodity COTS (comes off the shelf) mentality.

          Humans are not mass produced meat robots with part numbers! It's almost some kind of misapprehension of human nature you'd think would only be possible for somebody coming from a star system hundreds of light years away and only making a half-assed study of this planet....

          If it makes me racist to observe that for whatever reason, Europeans (by extension USA) and Japanese have cultures that promote modern technological societies, then I'm a fucking racist. Maybe reality has a racist bias as a small exception to its normally liberal bias. Europe resurrected the cultures of ancient Greece where democracy and science were born. Japan was mostly feudal until the Meiji era when they began the century and a half process of embracing those ancient Greek ideas in double time to catch up to Europeans.

          Of course I'm massively simplifying. But I mean for fuck's sake. I run through the Vision Gran Turismo mode in GT6, and I see, you know, here are some Germans talking about engineering and artistry that went into this concept car, here are some French talking about engineering and artistry that went into that concept car, here are some Japanese talking about engineering and artistry that went into this other concept car. You know?

          Maybe some day for the rest of the world, but culture matters. Culture is a big part of who a person is. Some cultures are perhaps too idealistic and impractical, some cultures are pragmatic, some are oriented towards this, that, or the other thing, and there are some cultures that are abjectly in every objective measure just fucking bad (looking at Thar cultures). I'm not saying that there is One Culture to Rule them All (The Culture?) or a "best" culture.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by cubancigar11 on Wednesday May 31 2017, @12:49PM (6 children)

      by cubancigar11 (330) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @12:49PM (#518241) Homepage Journal

      Thanks for the article. specially this insight: [zerohedge.com] "Senior citizens and housewives are source of part-time workers"

      The WaPo somehow turns this around into how women are not being encouraged enough to fill the part-time job demand, while completely ignoring the high male suicide in Japan due to lack of full-time work [wikipedia.org]:

      A contributing factor to the suicide statistics among those who were employed was the increasing pressure of retaining jobs by putting in more hours of overtime and taking fewer holidays and sick days. According to government figures, "fatigue from work" and health problems, including work-related depression, were prime motives for suicides, adversely affecting the social wellbeing of salarymen and accounting for 47 percent of the suicides in 2008.[23][24] Out of 2,207 work-related suicides in 2007, the most common reason (672 suicides) was overwork,[23] a death known as karōshi.

      This confirms my belief that all the talk of women-empowerment is basically just a way to increase labor pool and depress actual wages.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:20PM (5 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:20PM (#518259)

        This confirms my belief that all the talk of women-empowerment is basically just a way to increase labor pool and depress actual wages.

        The caveat here is that the MBA assholes by doing this sacrifice the long term prosperity for short term gain. "What women are not having ton of kids because they are now part of the workforce? That is unacceptable! They need to work AND have 5 kids AND afford childcare for 5 kids at the same time while earning a lot less than would be paid in all male workforce!"

        • (Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:29PM

          by cubancigar11 (330) on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:29PM (#518266) Homepage Journal

          Yes but the actual caveat is that there is legal requirement to have women MBAs in the top position. Furthermore, society will rise up to ensure women are being given equal pay for the 5 kids they are raising without the father while father goes to suicide paying that alimony. What? You thought the peasants are required? Only a womb is required to furnish the next generation of slaves.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:48PM (3 children)

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:48PM (#518273)

          AND afford childcare

          Its interesting culturally that centuries ago it was expected that only minor lowest level nobility would own enough slaves or servants to raise their children for them, but now a days its assumed even the lowliest wageslave will have a hired servant raise their kids.

          I'm not sure that's a good idea.

          In the old days having hired peasants or owned property raise your kids was probably a net gain; you show a certain minimal trust of your lowers to raise your kids and not kidnap or kill them, and having been raised by the lower classes it humanizes them in the eyes of your kids, so the amount of abuse of peasants was "too high" in the old days yet it was also likely a hell of a lot lower than you'd expect or be propagandized to believe.

          In the modern era things are unfortunately more multicultural so you'll have your kids raised by a probably alien culture, which isn't conducive for the survival of your own culture. There's a big qualitative difference between the highest status village grandma getting essentially a retirement plan by being the governess of nobility children vs the lowest paid job out there is early childhood daycare worker, even Mcdonalds pays better, so you're not exactly sending your kids to the best. Meanwhile non-nobility has trouble paying for servants, barely being of a status better than wage-slave themselves, making kids so expensive that only poor people who are government supported can afford kids, which is going to be extremely dis-eugenic.

          Probably it would be a good idea to ban child care much like for moral/ethical reasons a lot of cultures ban houses of prostitution. Theoretically nothing wrong with two consenting adults but due to power imbalance they're not consenting any more than an unconscious chick can consent, and regardless of libertarian theory it pragmatically the result is destroyed cultures so it should be suppressed.

          • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:53PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:53PM (#518277)

            Its interesting culturally that centuries ago it was expected that only minor lowest level nobility would own enough slaves or servants to raise their children for them, but now a days its assumed even the lowliest wageslave will have a hired servant raise their kids.

            That's bullshit. People need "child care" because someone needs to watch their children while both parents are working. Centuries ago, and even only a few decades ago, the mothers/wives were expected to care for the children and not be part of the workforce. That is what has changed and not some imaginary entitlement to have servants raise their children.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @02:58PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @02:58PM (#518310)

              Correct. I would be perfectly fine with wife watching the kid if I made triple my salary, being that my wife makes somewhat double what I currently make (pay-gap my fucking ass). She wants to stay home, but seriously I can't agree to it as financially it would be awful undertaking (Pay mortgage in 30 years instead of 10, total stupidity). And no, even though I love our daughter I would not want to stay home instead. It would ruin my self-esteem in short order and create quite a bit of resentment and friction in our marriage. I would resent my wife having a successful career, which I would want for myself, and she would resent me staying home which she would want for herself.

              Everyone screwed this pooch for last 30 years, and now this generation who had not part-taken in the screwing is dealing with the results. Thanks everyone who is over 50, thanks a lot - assholes!

          • (Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday June 01 2017, @11:30AM

            by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Thursday June 01 2017, @11:30AM (#518785) Journal

            That is the most delusional, racist thing I've read in a long while, and I've been reading Trump tweets. You have no idea what you are talking about. Shame on whoever modded you up - "insightful" no less.

            I have two kids, one in school who spent 3 years in a nursery, one currently at nursery. Oh, for the last 20 odd years I've shared my life with a highly qualified professional who has spent decades working in various childcare institutions. Those are my credentials. From what you've posted, I can only imagine that have no kids, have never had adult interactions with professional childcare beyond "keep those kids off my lawn", and furthermore I strongly suspect you were actually born a bigoted, intolerant old bastard and so have never even experienced childhood yourself. And you get modded "insightful". Fuck.

            Anyway, some more specific rebuttals:

            1 - Care to offer any kind of evidence that childcare is run by "probably alien cultures"? Or is that an "alternative fact"?
            2 - you know what, even if it you do have an immigrant looking after your kid, bug fucking deal. You think immigrants aren't humans? You think they eat children just acros the border? Why do you have to shoehorn immigration and nationality into this? What is your fucking problem?
            3 - Yeah, professional childcarers are rarely paid what they are worth, but that doesn't mean they are shit, it just means they are underpaid. In my country at least, childcare is HEAVILY regulated & monitored and exacting standards MUST be met. The people who look after my toddler 1.5 days a week are all highly trained, highly professional, and passionate about the job.
            4 - Yes, obviously there's a big difference in cost between employing "servants" (ie Angelina Jolie with 12 nannies for her handful of feral brats) and normal professional childcare (ie, what regular people get), where carer:child staffing ratios can be like 1:3 to 1:13 depending on the age of the kid and your local legislation. What's your point? I really shouldn't have to explain to you that one person looking after 3 babies is a more efficient use of labour than 3 people looking after one baby each. The economics are clearly in favour.
            5 - You want to ban childcare as "immoral"? You are a fucking nutcase. You clearly have no clue what you are talking about, you're just looking for excuses to spout off racist bile.
            6 - Professional childcare isn't new or rare. There are generations of people - millions or even billions of them - who spent part of their childhood in the care of professionals. If it was harmful or detrimental in some way, the evidence would be everywhere.
            7 -Putting your kids in with carers and a group of other children a few times a week is good for the child. It teaches them social skills that they can't simply learn at home with just the parent and maybe a sibling or two. If some of those kids or carers are from other cultures, than so much the better. Exposure to different languages, customs and ways of life is one of the best kinds of education you could wish for. You should get some of it for yourself.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:03PM

      Empty jobs with low wages are a self-correcting problem in a capitalist society. Just not instantly.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:09PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 31 2017, @01:09PM (#518252)

      And its not, so you can tell its fake news.

      Are you implying Russia Today is not a reputable news source? Fascinating.

  • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday May 31 2017, @02:56PM

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 31 2017, @02:56PM (#518309) Journal

    Wages have gone up in Japan. Not a ton, but it was the very first thing I looked up upon seeing this headline.