Japan's jobless rate rises to 4.1% in August

The Japanese government said Tuesday that the country's unemployment rate in August rose to 4.1 percent from 3.8 percent in July, marking the first deterioration in six months. According to a preliminary report released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Tuesday, the number of unemployed people rose a seasonally adjusted 8.4 percent from July to 2.72 million, with those quitting jobs of their own volition increasing 8.8 percent to 990,000. However, a ministry official in charge of the survey took an optimistic standpoint of the job market, saying more people have become eager to seek employment amid growing hopes of economic recovery, pushing the jobless rate higher. A separate data showed Japan's job availability in the reporting period improved for the sixth straight month. The ratio of employment offers to seekers climbed to 0.95 in August, inched 0.1 percent from July, which means 95 positions were available for every 100 job seekers, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.