Japan’s November jobless rate falls to 2.5%

The job availability ratio was unchanged at 1.35 in November, meaning there were 135 job openings for every 100 job seekers, ending 10 straight months of improvement, according to separate government data.

Although the number of job offers and job seekers both decreased from the previous month, companies remained willing to hire, with some failing to fill vacancies amid a labor shortage, a labor ministry official said.

The accommodation and restaurant sector saw the sharpest rise in job offers in the reporting month, up 21.2 percent from a year earlier, likely buoyed by the government's domestic travel subsidy program and expectations for an increase in tourists around the New Year holidays following the removal of coronavirus restrictions.

On an unadjusted basis, the number of people working in the accommodation and restaurant sector rose 5.1 percent from a year earlier to 3.93 million, while the workforce at manufacturing firms increased 1.6 percent to 10.45 million, according to data released by the internal affairs ministry.

In contrast, employment in real estate and goods leasing businesses dropped 8.8 percent to 1.35 million and the number of jobs in the transportation and postal service sector fell 5.8 percent to 3.44 million.

The number of unemployed people in November dropped 50,000, or 2.8 percent, from the previous month to 1.73 million on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the ministry.

The number of people seeking new jobs dropped 15.4 percent to 440,000, contributing to the decline in the unemployment rate. A total of 710,000 voluntarily left their jobs, up 9.2 percent from the previous month, while 420,000 were laid off, up 2.4 percent.

The unemployment rate stood at 2.8 percent among men, unchanged from the previous month, while rate among women fell 0.1 point to 2.2 percent, the data showed.