It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an economy in possession of a strong labour market must be in want of a central bank, as Jane Austen might have said, had she had the fortune to be a securities analyst rather than an acute observer of manners.
Japan is in this position. The most commonly-used ratio to describe how weak or strong demand for labour is in Japan is called the job offers to applicants ratio. As the name suggests, this compares the numbers of jobs being offered by employers to the number of potential employees looking for jobs. Where is Japan on the path to improving shareholder value? The latest figure, for April 2017, caused a stir when it was announced. It came out at 1.48, which means there were almost half as many more jobs on offer than there were people looking for jobs. What caused the stir is that ...
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