Employment of people with disabilities in Nagasaki increases by 2.61%

From Kyodo News

January 22 2021

NAGASAKI – The Nagasaki Labor Bureau has summarized the employment situation of persons with disabilities in the prefecture (as of June 1, last year). In private companies, the actual employment rate, which indicates the ratio of persons with disabilities to employees, increased by 0.07 points from the previous year to 2.61%, the highest ever since the start of aggregation in 1977. The national ranking was 4th, up two places from the previous survey. On the other hand, public institutions fell below the statutory employment rate in prefectural boards of education and Sasebo City.

Private companies are 1017 companies in the prefecture that employ 45.5 or more employees, and public institutions are a total of 39 institutions such as local governments and boards of education.

The number of companies that achieved the statutory employment rate of 2.2% was 638, and the achievement rate was 62.7%, an increase of 1.4 points from the previous year. The actual employment rate by industry was highest in “medical care and welfare”, and also in “life-related service industry, entertainment industry”, “transportation industry, postal industry” and “manufacturing industry”.

379 companies have not achieved the legal employment rate. Of these, 244 companies, or 64.4%, did not employ any one. The Labor Bureau believes that “misassessment of persons with disabilities may be hindering employment,” and will advise persons with disabilities to find out possible jobs in cooperation with related organizations.

There are 10 public institutions such as Sasebo City and the prefectural board of education that have not achieved the statutory employment rate. Of these, Hirado, Tsushima and Nagasaki City Board of Education had resolved the shortage by the end of last year.

From March, the statutory employment rate of private companies will increase to 2.3%, and that of local governments will increase by 0.1 points to 2.6%. The Law for Promotion of Employment of Persons with Disabilities requires the national government, local governments, and private companies to hire a certain percentage or more of persons with disabilities in order to encourage social participation of persons with disabilities.