— Japan Oct Jobless Rate MNI Survey Median Forecast: 4.1%
— Japan Oct Employment -220,000 Y/Y Vs Sep -330,000
— Japan Oct Employment Posts 4th Y/Y Drop In Row

TOKYO (MNI) – Japan’s national average unemployment rate rose to
4.5% in October from 4.1% in September as the number of unemployed
increased from the previous month, data from the Ministry of Internal
Affairs and Communications showed Tuesday.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for October came in much
higher than the median forecast of 4.1% in a survey of economists by
Market News International.

The October jobless rate was still lower than pre-disaster levels
of 4.6% in February and 4.9% in January.

Effective with September data, the government resumed releasing the
national average unemployment rate based on figures from all the 47
prefectures, including earthquake-hit areas that were previously
excluded from the data.

The government compiled employment and unemployment data from March
to August without records from the Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima
prefectures, the hardest hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that
wrecked the northeastern Pacific coast.

In October, the number of payroll jobs stood at a seasonally
adjusted 62.46 million, unchanged from September.

The adjusted number of unemployed rose by 250,000, or 9.4%, to 2.92
million in October.

Looking at the longer-term trend, the unadjusted number of employed
people fell by 220,000 to 62.64 million in October from a year earlier,
posting the fourth consecutive year-on-year fall after falling 330,000
in September.

The unadjusted number of jobless workers fell 460,000 on year to
2.88 million in October, after falling 650,000 in September.

The data also showed that the number of those who lost their jobs
and were looking for work continued to fall from year-earlier levels in
October while the number of people who quit their job voluntarily to
look for other openings also dropped.

tokyo@marketnews.com
** Market News International Tokyo Newsroom: 81-3-5403-4833 **

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