Job availability in Japan improved to its best level in more than 40 years in May, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday.
The latest data released by the ministry reveals that Japan's job market remains exceedingly tight and a severe labor shortage is continuing, to the detriment of the economy.
The ministry said that Japan's jobless rate increased to 3.1 percent in May from 2.8 percent in April, owing to workers resigning from their positions to seek out better employments situations.
The ratio of job seekers to job offers improved, meanwhile, to 1.49 in May from 1.48 in April, marking the best level since February 1974, separate data from the the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare showed Friday.
The figures translate to mean that for every 100 job seekers there were 149 positions available.
The unemployment rate for men increased 0.3 point to 3.2 percent, in the recording period, while the rate for women rose 0.3 point to 2.9 percent, the statistics bureau said.
The total number of unemployed people leapt 10.2 percent, or by 190,000 people, to 2.05 million unemployed people on a seasonally adjusted basis, the data showed.
Japan currently has 65.19 million workers in gainful employment.
Household spending, the ministry said, slumped 0.1 percent from a year ago to 283,056 yen (2,530 U.S. dollars), in the recording period, marking the 15th successive month of decline, as wage growth remains sluggish.
The average income of salaried households tumbled 1.7 percent on year to 421,497 yen, the ministry also said, falling for the third straight month.