In this paper I analyzed the time series trend of regional labor mobility based on a mobility index (the Shorrocks index) using two datasets compiled by Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, namely the Annual Report on Labor Market (ARLM) and the Survey on Employment Trends (SET). The former records labor mobility through public employment services (PES), while the latter is a national survey conducted on a broader scale. At the 47-prefectural level, it was found that the ARLM-based index has been gradually on the rise since the end of 1990's, while the SET-based index has been consistently on the decline throughout the sample period. There may be some structural factors specific to PES, as well as cyclical ones behind the difference them. On the other hand, at the 13-regional level, it was found that inter-regional mobility has become increasingly inactive throughout the sample period in both datasets. This fact may possibly indicate the advent of a regionally segmented labor market in Japan.
