First, with regard to the household sector, labor market conditions have been improving steadily, as seen in the unemployment rate declining to around 3.5 percent, which is roughly the same level as the structural unemployment rate (Chart 2). In this situation, the rate of increase in wages has climbed moderately, registering around 1 percent (Chart 3).
With an increase in the number of employees, employee income has been rising in the 2–3 percent range. Amid the steady improvement in the employment and income situation, private consumption has been resilient as a trend, and the effects of the decline in demand following the front-loaded increase have been waning on the whole.