Job losses in Japan due to coronavirus hit 50,000 mark
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said on Tuesday that 50,326 people, including prospective employees, have been dismissed from their jobs or saw their contracts terminated for reasons related to the coronavirus pandemic as of the end of August.
By employment type, 21,412 non-regular workers had lost their jobs between May 25 and Aug. 28. The ministry collected the data via the HelloWork public job placement offices.
The number of non-regular workers who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic topped 10,000 as of July 3 and surpassed 20,000 on Aug. 21. The pace of job losses has been increasing by 1,000 to 2,000 every week. However, the ministry believes the actual figure is even larger and is asking industry associations, staffing agencies and others to keep workers employed.
By sector, as of Aug. 28, the manufacturing industry had the largest number of job losses at 7,918. By prefecture, Tokyo had the highest amount of people put out of work by the virus at 11,312, followed by Osaka Prefecture with 4,194 and Aichi Prefecture with 2,599.