Coronavirus woes leads to 1,104 of Japan’s people with disabilities losing their jobs

Written with extracts translated from Kyodo

August 4 2020

Between February and June this year, the number of persons with disabilities who had been dismissed from companies was 1,104, an increase of 152 (16.0%) compared to the same period last year, according to a summary by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare by August 4th. One of the reasons is that it became impossible to maintain employment due to the deterioration of business as the new coronavirus spread.

The ministry investigated the situation through Hello Work in each region. March was also the period when employment was stopped and dismissed increased for the next year’s sales, with 366 being the most frequent, followed by 221 in May and 206 in June.

In May, the number of new job offers for persons with disabilities decreased by 6,776 to 10,1972. The rate of decrease was 36.1%, 4.0 points higher than 32.1% for the general public.