Gov't eyeing emergency measures to cope with rising unemployment

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TOKYO, Oct. 5 Kyodo -
The government said Monday it is considering implementing emergency measures to
cope with rising unemployment, with figures showing that joblessness in the
country remains near a postwar high.
''We need some kind of unemployment measures and to create jobs because we are
very concerned about the employment situation at year-end and in the new
(business) year,'' Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan told reporters.
Kan, also a state minister for national policy tasked with addressing
joblessness, made the remark after meeting with Health, Labor and Welfare
Minister Akira Nagatsuma at the Cabinet Office, where they confirmed plans to
take urgent measures if they are deemed necessary.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama showed willingness to tackle the labor issue,
telling reporters, ''There is a possibility, a concern that it could get worse
again toward the end of the year and I therefore think that we need to create
at some point something similar to a task force.''
In Monday's meeting, Kan and Nagatsuma agreed to avoid a repeat of the
situation that developed around New Year when a large number of people without
jobs or homes gathered in a park in central Tokyo seeking food and shelter,
according to participants.
They included contract workers whose contracts had not been renewed due to the
severe economic downturn and who had been forced out of housing facilities.
The two ministers also agreed on the need to avoid at all costs widespread
joblessness among new college graduates next spring, the participants said.
With this in mind, the government will consider both short- and long-term
measures, the former to be implemented during the current fiscal year through
next March, the participants said. Measures aimed at increasing the wages of
nursing-care workers for the elderly could be implemented from the next fiscal
year.
Some within the government had called for setting up the task force, which
would comprise Hatoyama and others in his Cabinet, soon to address
unemployment, but that may now be considered after urgent measures are taken
first, the participants said.
An extra budget for the current fiscal year approved by the Cabinet of former
Prime Minister Taro Aso includes measures to address unemployment worth 1.27
trillion yen, including some aimed at supporting temporary workers and others
undergoing job training.
A senior government official said the measures included in the budget could be
improved by enhancing job training aimed at helping the unemployed reenter the
workforce.
The ministers in the Hatoyama Cabinet, including Kan, are expected to handle
the matter by tapping into the extra budget and reserve funds for the time
being.
The Democratic Party of Japan, the Social Democratic Party and the People's New
Party agreed when they forged their pact to create a coalition government to
consider implementing measures to address unemployment swiftly given the
deepening labor market crisis.
Japan's unemployment rate stood at 5.5 percent in August, down 0.2 point from
the post-World War II high of 5.7 percent recorded in the previous month.
Although it was the first fall in seven months, Nagatsuma has made a severe
assessment, saying the situation remains at the worst level in postwar Japan.
The government said 3.61 million people were out of work in August, up 890,000
from a year earlier.
==Kyodo