Japan's unemployment rate falls for first time in 3 months

Japan's unemployment rate has fallen for the first time in three months, potentially feeding into higher wages and providing support for the Bank of Japan's sustainable inflation goal down the road.

The unemployment rate was down to 2.6% in April, down from 2.8% in March. The rate of joblessness had been expected to fall to 2.7% in the first quarter of this year. The number of those without jobs decreased by 150,000 from the previous month.

The job-to-appliquer ratio remained unchanged from the previous month at 1.32, meaning that there were 132 jobs available for every 100 applicants and indicating continued relative tightness in the labor market.

There may be a conflict with your ad-blocking or security software. JP and piano.io to your list of allowed sites. If this does not resolve the issue or you are unable to add the domains to your allowlist, please see this FAQ. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.