Japan’s jobless rate hits new high at 5.7 per cent

Rejecting official claims that the recession in the country is over, Japan's unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage points to hit a record 5.7 per cent in July on a seasonally adjusted basis.

According to the ministry of internal affairs and communications in a preliminary report released today, tnumber of the unemployed expanded for nine months in a row, up by 1.03 million to 3.59 million from a year earlier, said.

The jobless rate for men rose 0.4 percentage point to 6.1 per cent on a month-on-month basis, compared with a 0.1 point rise to 5.1 per cent for women.
Observers said that the ever-increasing jobless rate is likely to deal a further blow to Japanese prime minister Taro Aso's already embattled government ahead of Sunday's general election.

The state of Japan's economy is the key issue in the election campaign.

Companies are continuing to lay off workers even though the economy has returned to growth after the most bruising recession for decades.

Separately, the data released by the labor ministry today showed that the ratio of job offers to job seekers stood at 42 to 100 job in July, down from 43 to 100 in June.