Japan’s unemployment rate rises

Tokyo: Japan’s unemployment rate in June rose to 3.4 percent for the first increase in five months, government data showed. The number of unemployed people adjusted 1.8 percent from May to 2.22 million. The jobless rate for women was up 0.1 percentage point to 3.1 percent, while that for men stayed flat at 3.6 percent, Xinhua reported an official as saying on Friday. The country’s job availability remained unchanged from the previous month in June. The ratio of employment offers to seekers stayed at 1.19, which means 119 positions were available for every 100 job seekers. An official of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said the labour market “continues to be on a recovery path”.