1 Sep

Japan's labor ministry says more than 50,000 people in the country have lost or are about to lose their jobs because of the coronavirus.

The ministry has been checking for cases where employers struggling with declining sales fire their workers or refuse to renew their contracts.

It found that 50,326 people became unemployed between the end of January and August 31.

The ministry believes the actual figure is much higher, since these are only the cases known to regional labor bureaus and job placement offices.

The number of coronavirus-linked job losses topped 10,000 on May 22. It exceeded 30,000 on July 1 and 40,000 on July 29.

The ministry is urging businesses to maintain jobs through the use of government subsidy programs and is also planning to help the unemployed find new jobs.

nhk