Japan's unemployment rate held steady for a fourth straight month at 5.4 per cent in August, just shy of a postwar era high, as companies stayed under strong pressure to cut costs in the face of harsh competition.
The number of unemployed rose by 250,000 from the previous year to 3.61 million, up for the 17th straight month, the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications said today.
The jobless rate has been unchanged since May when it rose from 5.2 per cent in April.
"Going forward I think it is very unlikely that the jobless rate can fall significantly," said Shuji Shirota, economist at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in Tokyo.
"Even if the Japanese economy remains on the recovery path, this recovery will be moderate and it is difficult to see the jobless rate falling back below five percent," Shirota said.
Most economists had expected unemployment to remain flat at 5.4 per cent in August, a breath away from a postwar high of 5.5 per cent reached last December.
The number of employed people, including self-employed, fell 720,000 to 63.71 million.