Japan's Jobless rises...

Oct 30, 2007

Japan's Sept jobless rate rises to 4%

JAPAN'S unemployment rate rose to 4.0 per cent in September from 3.8 per cent the previous month, worse than market expectations, official data showed on Tuesday. But the total number of unemployed declined by 110,000 from a year earlier to 2.69 million in September, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.

Economists had on average expected the jobless rate to hold steady at 3.8 percent. The unemployment rate is watched closely for evidence of expanded hiring by Japanese companies and positive knock-on effects for consumer spending.

The jobless rate stood at 3.6 per cent in July, which was the lowest rate since February 1998.
The male jobless rate rose to 4.0 per cent from 3.8 per cent in August, while the female unemployment rate also increased to 4.0 per cent from 3.7 per cent, the ministry said.

Job offers: job seekers

In a separate report, the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry said the ratio of job offers to job seekers in September came to 1.05 on a seasonally adjusted basis, down from 1.06 in August.
This means there were 105 jobs available for every 100 job seekers in September.
But the number of full-time job offers fell to 62 for every 100 job seekers, down from 64 reported a year earlier, the ministry said.

The number of new job offers declined 13.2 per cent in September from the year earlier. -- AFP