Japan’s jobless rate falls to 2.4% in January

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s jobless rate fell to 2.4% in January, while the availability of jobs fell for the first time in nearly 2-1/2 years, government data showed on Friday.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was lower than economists’ median forecast of 2.5% in a Reuters poll.

The jobs-to-applicants ratio fell to 1.35 from December’s 1.36, marking the first decline since August 2020, labour ministry data showed.

For a table on the jobless data, go to the internal affairs ministry’s website:

(Note: The jobs-to-applicants ratio and new job offers can be seen in Japanese on the labour ministry’s website)

(Reporting by Kentaro Sugiyama and Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)