英字新聞

The Yomiuri Shimbun(Aug. 25, 2009)
Helping youth find jobs is an urgent task
雇用対策　若者の就労支援が緊急課題だ（8月25日付・読売社説）

The upcoming House of Representatives election will be held amid growing concern over employment. Though individual parties have proposed measures to tackle the employment crisis, none offers a quick fix.
　雇用不安が高まる中での選挙戦である。各党は危機に対応した雇用対策を掲げるが、即効薬があるわけではない。

Voters should carefully consider what effect particular policies will have on their workplace.
　個々の対策について、労働現場に及ぼす影響などを慎重に見極める必要がある。

The government and the ruling parties have taken emergency countermeasures for employment-related problems in the fiscal 2009 supplementary budget and through other means. The Liberal Democratic Party is quite right to tout these policies in its manifesto for the lower house election. They include drastic expansion of job-training programs and an emergency employment project under which local governments would create jobs with grants from the central government.
　政府・与党は２００９年度の補正予算などで緊急対策を講じてきた。自民党が、これらを公約の前面に掲げたのは当然である。職業訓練の大幅な拡充や、国からの交付金で地方が雇用を創出する緊急雇用創出事業などだ。

The nation's unemployment rate stands at 5.4 percent. There is growing speculation that it is only a matter of time before the rate tops the current post-World War II record high of 5.5 percent. Will it be possible to put the brakes on this worsening trend? The effectiveness of the job-creation measures will be tested against such circumstances.
　完全失業率は５・４％まで上昇した。今後、過去最悪の５・５％を超えるのは必至との見方も強まっている。悪化傾向に歯止めをかけることができるか。対策の効果が試される局面でもある。

===

DPJ wooly on dispatch issue

Three opposition parties--the Democratic Party of Japan, the Social Democratic Party and the People's New Party--have pledged to strengthen measures to boost employment in a common policy pledge. The measures include setting up a system to help those seeking jobs and banning, in principle, the dispatch of temporary workers in the manufacturing sector and to daily-paid jobs.
　民主・社民・国民新の野党３党は、共通の公約に「雇用対策の強化」を盛り込んだ。求職者支援制度の創設、製造業派遣や日雇い派遣の原則禁止、などだ。

The system to assist job-seekers is meant to provide financial assistance to nonregular workers and others who are not covered by unemployment insurance while they are participating in job-training programs. The government and ruling parties have already introduced a similar system in the supplementary budget for fiscal 2009.
　求職者支援制度は、雇用保険の適用を受けない非正規労働者などを対象に、職業訓練期間中の生活を支援する制度だが、政府・与党も、すでに０９年度の補正予算で同様の制度を設けている。

While the system established by the government and the ruling parties is a temporary measure that will expire in three years, the opposition parties propose a permanent system. However, the government and the ruling bloc plan to examine the advisability of extending the system after studying its effects and the employment situation. In this regard, there is no major difference between the two systems.
　政府・与党の制度は３年の臨時措置、野党案は永続的な制度、と違いはあるが、政府・与党も効果や雇用情勢を踏まえて存続の是非を検討する方針だ。与野党間に大差があるわけではない。

As for the dispatch of temp workers in the manufacturing sector, the DPJ proposes to set up a system for jobs requiring specialized skills and knowledge, and allow those engaged in jobs that fall into this category to be employed as dispatch workers. But the party has failed to spell out the details of the system it envisages.
　製造業派遣について、民主党は新たに専門職制度を設け、その部分については認める方針だ。しかし、専門職制度とは何なのか、具体的な説明がない。

Moreover, what will happen to the nearly 500,000 people who are currently dispatched as temp staff in the manufacturing industry? We suspect they will end up shifting to other unstable positions, such as subcontractor jobs, in which people are hired by one company to work at another firm. It will be impossible for us to judge how effective the proposed system will be unless the party provides a clear picture of how it plans to secure employment in the manufacturing sector.
　製造業派遣で働く５０万人近い人の雇用はどうなるのか。請負など別の不安定雇用に移るだけではないのか。原則禁止後の製造現場の雇用の姿を示してくれないと、判断のしようがない。

===

Future in hands of young

The LDP also takes the position of banning the dispatch of workers to daily-paid jobs, in principle. However, there is a demand for short-term jobs from both employees and workers. We believe what needs to be done first is to set up a simple, smooth system for introducing work to job seekers, instead of relying on temporary staffing service firms.
　日雇い派遣は自民党も原則禁止の立場だが、短期間の仕事の需要は求人求職の双方にある。派遣に代わる簡便で円滑な職業紹介の仕組みを設けることが先決だ。

The government must also make efforts to widen a system to hire dispatch workers as regular employees in cooperation with the business sector. At the same time, it needs to take into account the danger that simply regulating a flexible working style may leave people out of a job.
　産業界とも協力し、派遣労働者を正社員に転換させる制度を拡充していくべきだ。同時に、柔軟な働き方を規制するだけでは、かえって雇用の場が失われる危険性も考慮しなければならない。

As society is steadily graying while the birthrate is declining, the number of unemployed and nonregular workers is increasing among young people, who are expected to play central roles in society in the future.
　少子高齢化が進む中で、将来を担う若者の間で失業者や非正規労働者が増えている。

How can we nurture young people who are motivated to work and support them? This is an urgent problem for us to tackle, regardless of which party or parties takes the reins of government.
働く意欲のある若者を社会全体でどう育て、支えていくか。政権の行方にかかわらず、緊急の課題である。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Aug. 25, 2009)
（2009年8月25日01時26分 読売新聞）