Japan - Jobless manufacturing workers in Japan may be expected to go into jobs that help take care of the ageing population.

One industry body has estimated the loss of 400,000 contract workers in the last six months. The manufacturing sector has been the worst hit as exports decrease in the global economic downturn.

According to a report by Channel NewsAsia, the Japanese government hopes to channel the unemployed into the nursing care sector for the rapidly greying country with understaffed nursing homes. In the next two years, they estimate a need of 120,000 more people in geriatric care.

Prime Minister Taro Aso has announced that two trillion yen will be used to fund career switches into elderly care. In Tokyo, nursing care services are facing acute staff shortages, with an average of 3.24 openings for every applicant. A new city-run programme will pay for basic nursing training, and interest-free loans will be granted to help with career-change expenses like clothing and relocation. The loans will be waived if they stay in their jobs for more than six months.

However, senior economist at the Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo Martin Schultz is not too optimistic about this plan. He feels that falling employment in manufacturing and a need for labour in the nursing care sector do not go very well. "Similar attempts to funnel workers from one sector to another in Europe have met with little success," he says.