Japan is suffering from a shortfall of workers. That might actually be a boost for its economy, says Gearoid Reidy for Bloomberg Opinion.
Over half of Japan’s businesses say they can’t find enough full-time staff. TOKYO: Would you trust an 80-year-old driver with your life on some of the developed world’s most complex streets?
As the economy has rebounded from COVID-19, the last of the slack in the jobs market has vanished. Over half of the country’s businesses say they can’t find enough full-time staff. Citing a staff shortage, the wagon sales will conclude this month, with riders encouraged to stock up before embarking .These are just some of the shocks coming in a country where one in 10 people is now over 80. Though the working-age population has been declining for some time, Japan has coped by tapping previously ignored resources, most notably women.
Junichi Makino, the chief economist at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc, expects the higher labour costs that will inevitably result to spur company investment in raising Japan’s unusually low labour productivity and lift economic growth. The government is scrambling for solutions, including cutting wasteful journeys by encouraging customers to avoid deliveries when no one is home.
But not every industry has such easy productivity gains. Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, which require levels of manpower that can’t be met through immigration, missed its recruiting goal for the last fiscal year by more than half.The simplest option for many industries might be what the taxi sector is doing - keeping people in the workforce longer.
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