The Labour Force Survey-based number of employees has continued to increase, when smoothing out fluctuations, and the active job openings-to-applicants ratio has been at a high level that exceeds the peak marked during the bubble period. In addition, the unemployment rate has remained at a low level.
Amid the tight supply-demand conditions in the labor market, the year-on-year rate of increase in scheduled cash earnings of full-time employees has been in the range of around 0.5-1.0 percent. In addition, that in hourly scheduled cash earnings of part-time employees, which are responsive to supply-demand conditions in the labor market, has registered relatively high growth at around 2 percent.