Japan’s unemployment rate edges up 4.3%

Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday that unemployment rate edged up to 4.3% in February from the previous month, the government said Friday. But the number of unemployed people dropped by 120,000 from a year earlier to 2.77 million, falling year-on-year for the 33rd consecutive month, the ministry said in a statement relayed by Kyodo news agency . Retailers and wholesalers saw a decrease of 210,000 to 10.41 million people and manufacturers also lost 370,000 jobs to employ 10.28 million, the ministry said. The proportion of temporary and part-time workers in the labour force hit a record high in 2012 of 35.2% for the third consecutive year of increase, the ministry said in mid-February. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said that availability of jobs, measured as a ratio of job offers per job seekers, was flat at 0.85 in February.