TOKYO, July 30 (KUNA) -- Japan's jobless rate in June unexpectedly worsened to 5.3 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from May, marking the fourth straight month of increase and the highest level since last November, the government said Friday.
Japan's jobless rate hit an all-time high of 5.6 percent in July last year. The total number of jobless people fell 40,000 from a year before to 3.44 million, the first fall in 20 months, according to a preliminary report by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
Of the total, 1.01 million had been laid off, down 200,000 from a year before. The number of jobholders declined 200,000 from a year earlier to 62.8 million, marking the 29th straight month of fall.
But job availability in June improved for the second month in a row and hit the highest level since March. The average ratio of job offers to job seekers stood at 0.52, up 0.50 from May, separate data released by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry showed. That means there were 52 job offers for every 100 jobseekers.
Japan's jobless rate is still the lowest for a Group of Eight (G-8) major economies-- britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US. (end).
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