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Japan's Jan. unemployment rate drops 3 pct, household spending down 1.2 pct

Xinhua, March 3, 2017 Adjust font size:

The unemployment rate in Japan in January dropped 0.1 percentage point from a month earlier to 3.0 percent, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Friday.

In terms of job availability, separate data released Friday by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, showed it stood at 1.43 in January, the same as December's availability, which also marked the highest level since July 1991.

The figure translates to mean that for every 100 jobseekers there were 143 positions available.

The government also said that the unemployment rate for men declined 0.3 point to 3.1 percent in the recording period, while that for women stayed unchanged at 2.7 percent.

The number of unemployed people, the data set also showed, declined 4.3 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis to 1.98 million people.

The employment rate gained 0.1 percent in January, to 65.04 million workers, the government also said.

The Statistics Bureau also said Friday that household spending on year in January fell 1.2 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis to 279,249 yen (2,441 U.S. dollars).

Household spending is a key gauge of private consumption. Endit