Vacancies, Job Seekers, and Minimum Wages:Evidence from Public Employment Placement Service Data

Author: Souichi Ohta、Kazutomo Komae
Date: 2022/03/9
No: DP2022-004
JEL Classification codes: J63, J64, J65
Language: English
[ Abstract / Highlights ]

This paper investigates the impact of a minimum wage increase on the number of vacancies and job seekers using data from Japan's public employment placement service. The results show that for 2005-2019, a rise in the minimum wage reduced the number of vacancies. On the other hand, it increased the number of job seekers and then decreased the vacancy-job seeker ratio. Some part of this came from the increased job separation into unemployment. The impact of a minimum wage rise is conspicuous during the period of the slack labor market, for prefectures with high Kaitz indices or with a high proportion of small firms, and part-time jobs..