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Comment by yreg | Hacker News Reader

Doesn't Tokyo have very low unemployment? According to Wikipedia: Japan 2.5%, Singapore 3.2%, USA 4.1%, EU 5.2%.

I expect Tokyo is probably even lower than the national average. Visiting just as a tourist it seems like Japan is quite good at creating, I don't want to say bullshit jobs, but perhaps not-that-necessary jobs? Jobs which mainly serve to give something to do to (usually) elderly. My understanding was that the idea is to make them feel to be a contributing part of the society(?)

I mean all the people controlling the pedestrians or acting like "human signs" and such.

Am I getting it wrong?

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> Doesn't Tokyo have very low unemployment? According to Wikipedia: Japan 2.5%, Singapore 3.2%, USA 4.1%, EU 5.2%.

Singapore's unemployment statistic only counts people who are looking, not people who are retired or have given up [1]:

> A person is considered unemployed if he or she is:

> • not working;

> • actively seeking work; and

> • available for work

I don't know if the other countries follow the same methodology.

[1] https://stats.mom.gov.sg/iMAS_PdfLibrary/mrsd_qtlmr182_Techn...

I think the US does the same? At the very least it doesn't make sense to include retired people in unemployment. By similar logic I think it doesn't make sense to count people who are not actively looking for employment.

Yes, U3 vs U6

Don't make the mistake to think these jobs are just there to keep bored retirees active. The basic old age pension (kokumin nenkin - for sole-proprietors and people who have worked in non-permanent positions or small companies) is significantly below the poverty line at 70,600¥ per month -- that's $450 and that's if you've worked for 40 years without any gaps.

The vast majority of old people working these jobs, e.g. construction site security, do so because they would likely starve without it.

State pensions everywhere tend to assume home ownership. I haven't been to Japan since they started doing wild funny money stuff, so I don't know what that's doing to local prices/economies, but not that long ago $450 + home ownership would have been completely fine in many areas.

Due to its aging population and lack of mass immigration, Japan has a desperate labor shortage in many fields.

I don't think taxi driving in Tokyo is one of them (because, as noted, the qualifications needed are pretty minimal), although eg bus drivers are in extremely short supply.

Most people in Tokyo dont have time for cabs after working 15+ hour days 6 - 7 days a week.

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