Japan unemployment down to its lowest since the introduction of Abenomics

The unemployment rate for April was 3.3%, down 0.2ppt from March and the lowest level since April 1997 (3.2%). Not only has unemployment dropped to its lowest since the introduction of Abenomics, it has returned to levels last seen before Japan's economy entered deflation in 1998.

Nearly all of the decline in unemployment under Abenomics can be explained by an increase in the demand for labor, but a number of interesting characteristics can be also teased out of the data on the supply side.

"It is clear that the Japanese economy has started to bump up against a labor supply wall since the 2000s. On the short-term front, it is definitely not negative. However, labor supply constraints are a long-term problem that will not be easy to solve." notes BofA Merrill Lynch