— Japan Dec Jobless Rate MNI Survey Median Forecast: 4.5%
— Japan Dec Employment -100,000 Y/Y Vs Nov +80,000
— Japan Dec Employment Posts 1st Y/Y Drop in 2 Months

TOKYO (MNI) – Japan’s national average unemployment rate stood at
4.6% in December, up from 4.5% in November, as the number of unemployed
increased on the month while job creation was nearly flat, data from the
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed Tuesday.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for December came in
slightly higher than the median forecast of 4.5% in a survey of
economists by Market News International.

The jobless rate in December marked the first rise since October,
when it rose to 4.5% from 4.1% in September. It matched the rate in
June last year.

In December, the number of payroll jobs fell only slightly by
30,000 (0.0%) from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted 62.46
million.

By contrast, the adjusted number of unemployed rose by 30,000, or
1.0%, to 2.99 million in December, vs. +40,000 (+1.4%) to 2.96 million
in November.

Looking at the longer-term trend, the unadjusted number of employed
people fell by 100,000 to 62.22 million in December from a year earlier,
hit by a continued slump in wholesale and retail sectors as well as
manufacturing.

It posted the first year-on-year drop in two months after rising
80,000 in November.

Meanwhile, the unadjusted number of jobless workers fell 240,000
on year to 2.75 million in December, after falling 380,000 in November.

In 2011, the average unemployment rate fell to 4.5% from 5.0% in
2010 (the figure for the previous year was 5.1% when data from all the
prefectures were included).

The ministry excluded data from earthquake-hit areas of Iwate,
Miyagi and Fukushima in compiling the annual data.

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
December while the number of people who quit their job voluntarily to
look for other openings also dropped.

Effective with September 2011 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.

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

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