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Toyota's jobless
The global economic slowdown hits Toyota City's people hard. CNN's Kyung Lah reports。
They keep coming, one after the other, all in the same situation, fired because of Toyota's cutbacks. Toyota City Japan is seeing historic heights in unemployment. The city's job center stretches to its limits.
“All we can do is just focus on doing our best for them one by one.” says the head of the job center, cause think about all of them is overwhelming.
Live it like Cecelia Kobashigawa and it's even worse. “Scary”, she says, “and difficult, very difficult”. Kobashigawa's two children are in high school and she needs to support them. But in this one company town that's firing, not hiring, she doesn't feel much hope, neither do her four friends, all fired last December from the same Toyota subsidiary. This married couple, immigrants from Brazil, never thought they would both get fired on the same day. "It's tough”, he says, “We may have to move back to Brazil.”
This area is home to Japan's highest unemployment rate. According to this job center, last December, the number of unemployed people looking for a job jumped by 120%. At the same time period, the number of jobs available fell by 50%. More unemployed people, fewer jobs available for them.
" Huge percent down --90% down..down" That's how much Toyota City is losing in corporate taxes all due to Toyota's losses. Toyota City's Finance Division calls this ‘the Toyota's Shock’-- a seismic event breaking the city's financial books. “We've never experienced the loss like this,” he says. It's straining public services and worrying the jobless.
Kobashigawa says her day at the job center came up empty. “All you can do is hope the economy gets better”, she says, for her sake, for her family, and everyone she knows.
Kyung Lah, CNN, Toyota City, Japan.
