Bonuses log biggest year-on-year fall

Summer bonus payments at firms with at least five employees plunged 9.7 percent from a year earlier to an average of ¥363,104, marking the biggest fall since officials began compiling comparable data in 1991 and the third straight yearly fall, the labor ministry said Monday.

"Deterioration in corporate earnings due to the Lehman shock led to a steep decline in bonuses," a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry official said, referring to the global financial crisis after the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008.

By industry, bonus payments in the mining sector logged the biggest fall, at 52.0 percent to ¥334,261. Bonuses in the restaurant and lodging industry dropped 29.7 percent to ¥66,171 and those in the manufacturing sector fell 16.4 percent to ¥435,071.

On the other hand, bonuses in the services industry, including cooperative associations, increased 24.7 percent to ¥564,147 and those in the construction sector rose 7.6 percent to ¥394,217.