Japan Jan. Jobless Rate Hits 10-Month Low of 4.9 Pct

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Tokyo, March 2 (Jiji Press)--Japan's seasonally adjusted
unemployment rate improved further to hit a 10-month low of 4.9 pct in
January, the government said Tuesday.
The jobless rate fell 0.3 percentage point from the previous month,
down for the second straight month, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and
Communications said. The reading was the lowest since March 2009, when the
rate stood at 4.8 pct.
Separately, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said the ratio
of effective job offers to job seekers in January stood at 0.46 after
seasonal adjustment, up 0.03 point from the previous month. The ratio rose
for the first time in four months.
A string of data suggests that the number of workers in the
wholesale, retail, medical and nursing care service industries rose amid a
pickup in the economy and that the number of people who lost jobs
involuntarily because of bankruptcies and other reasons decreased.
Against this backdrop, the labor ministry upgraded the assessment
of the employment situation by saying that it remains severe despite some
signs of improvement.
In line with changes in the calculation method, December's jobless
rate was revised to 5.2 pct from 5.1 pct announced in late January, and the
job offers-to-seekers ratio was changed to 0.43 from 0.46.
In January, the jobless rate fell 0.1 point from the previous month
to 5.2 pct for men and a record 0.5 point to 4.6 pct for women, the internal
affairs ministry reported.
Year on year, the number of jobless people increased 460,000 to
3.23 million, marking the 15th straight month of increase. Meanwhile, the
country's total working population decreased 790,000 to 62.13 million, the
24th straight decrease.
The labor ministry said that the offers-to-seekers ratio for
regular jobs stood at 0.29, up 0.01 point from the previous month.
The ratio of new job offers to seekers, a leading indicator of the
employment situation, rose 0.04 point to 0.85.
The number of new job offers in the manufacturing sector increased
5.9 pct year on year, marking the first growth since October 2006.