Saturday 04th December, 12:18 AM JST
TOKYO —
The government expressed concern about worsening youth unemployment amid the nation’s prolonged economic downturn Friday in its report on children and young adults. In the annual paper, reported to the cabinet by Tomiko Okazaki, minister in charge of the nation’s declining birthrate, the government said unemployment rose to 9.6% among those aged between 15 and 19 in 2009, up from 8% in the previous year.
The unemployment rate for those aged 20-24 also grew to 9% from 7.1% during the same period. That compares with the average of 5.1% across all age brackets, up from 4.0 percent the previous year.
The number of ‘‘freeters’’—who remain in low-skill temporary jobs—turned upward for the first time in six years, coming to 1.78 million in 2009, of whom 870,000 were between 15 and 24 years old and the rest between 25 and 34 years old.
The number of freeters in these age brackets had been in decline until 2008, when it stood at 1.70 million, since it peaked in 2003 at 2.17 million.
The report also dwells on local efforts to make young people more independent, citing as an example a project by Kanagawa Prefecture in which students at all prefectural senior high schools went to polls at mock elections timed to coincide with the House of Councillors election in July.
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