2018.01.2923:05:00UTC+00Japan Labor Demand Grew in December

Labor demand in Japan increased in December to its highest in over 40 years, which could provide labor unions extra leverage in impending spring wage negotiations.

The jobs data implies that employers may be more likely to heed the government's call to increase wages by three percent or more at annual negotiations with unions this spring, boosting the chance that consumer spending and inflation will accelerate.

The jobs-to-applicants ratio climbed to 1.59 from 1.56 in November, which is the highest since January 1974.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose to 2.8 percent from 2.7 percent in November, according to the Internal Affairs ministry. Economists' median forecast was for the jobless rate to remain at 2.7 percent, the lowest since November 1993.

Retail sales grew in December by the most in nearly three years on higher spending on cars and clothes, separate data showed, which could ease concerns about a sudden drop in household spending in the same month.

Sales were 3.6 percent higher in December from the previous year, compared with a median market forecast for a 1.8 percent rise. That also recorded the biggest increase since a 4.9 percent annual increase in April 2015.

Japanese household spending, which is different from retail sales because it is based on surveys sent to a small sample of consumers, dropped 0.1 percent in December from a year earlier in price-adjusted real terms.

Japan marked seven consecutive quarters of economic growth to end-September, its longest uninterrupted stretch of expansion since 1994.