Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, wearing a face mask amid concerns over the spread of COVID-19, attends an upper house committee meeting at the parliament in Tokyo on Wednesday. Photo: AFP
Japan may see new hiring slow and job losses increase, particularly among service-sector firms struggling to cope with the intensifying pain of the coronavirus crisis, according to an analysis of survey data by a private think tank.
The analysis, using a technic known as “text mining,” showed that the word “job” was frequently used in combination with the word “adjustment.”
The combination of the terms “hiring activity” and “stagnation” also appeared many times in the survey.
Both these combinations did not show up in the government’s February survey, a sign that the coronavirus may be forcing an increasing number of retailers to consider job cuts, Dai-ichi Life Research said in a report.
Words like “subsidies” and “consulting for [government] help” were also used in tandem with the term “jobs” as frequently as when the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a global financial crisis, the institute said.
“The pandemic may hurt manufacturers. But for this crisis, there’s a high chance nonmanufacturers could lead the cycle where worsening business sentiment leads to fewer jobs,” said Takuya Hoshino, an economist at Dai-ichi Life Research.
The system used to examine the survey, text mining, is a type of data analysis that uses computer technology to process vast amounts of text information to extract trends or identify patterns of behavior on economic activity.
The economy-watchers survey, released last week, showed service sector sentiment hit a record low in March, as the coronavirus crisis prompted travel bans and hurt consumption in a major shock to the economy.
Japan’s jobs data for March will be released on April 28.
Job creation has been touted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as one of the key successes of his “Abenomics” stimulus policies deployed in 2012.
