Aspects of Labor Market Adjustments in Japan
探讨日本低失业率背后的劳动力市场调整机制，指出日本统计中将“休业者”视为就业，而这类人群在经济下行时增加、上行时减少，且日本企业更依赖调整工时和库存而非裁员来应对需求波动。
This article discusses some aspects of labor market adjustments in Japan that may be relevant to the low unemployment rate there. Japanese statistics treat 'kyugyosha' (persons not at work) as being employed, but some of these workers would be counted as unemployed in the United States. The 'kyugyosha' group appears to increase in size during downturns and decreases during upturns, suggesting that temporarily laid-off persons are an important part of this group. Japanese employers evidently rely less on employment adjustments, and more on adjustments in hours of work and inventory, while employers in the United States rely more on employment adjustments, to deal with cyclical changes in product demand. Japanese manufacturing employment became less sensitive, and hours of work more sensitive, to demand shocks after the introduction of the Employment Insurance Law in 1975. Copyright 1993 by University of Chicago Press.