Japan's March jobless rate unchanged at 4.6%, 2-yr low+

TOKYO, April 28 Kyodo -
The unemployment rate in Japan stayed at a two-year low of 4.6 percent in March, unchanged from the previous month and better than market forecasts, amid signs of recovery in the country's job markets, although the data did not sufficiently factored in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the government said Thursday.
For fiscal 2010 through last month, the jobless rate fell to 5.0 percent from the previous year's 5.1 percent for the first improvement in three years, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said in a preliminary report.
Separate data showed the country's job availability improved in fiscal 2010, with the ratio of job offers to job seekers rising to 0.56 from the previous year's record low 0.45. It means 56 jobs were available for every 100 seekers, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
The March unemployment rate, adjusted for seasonal factors, was below the average forecast of 4.8 percent by economists in a Kyodo News survey. In February, the rate dropped to 4.6 percent from 4.9 percent, reaching the lowest level since February 2009 when it stood at 4.4 percent.
The unemployment rate for men rose to 5.0 percent from 4.8 percent for the first deterioration in two months while that for women fell to 4.1 percent from 4.3 percent, the first improvement in two months.
The number of jobless people came to 3.04 million in the reporting month, down 260,000 from a year earlier for the 10th consecutive monthly decline.
The number of people dismissed from their jobs shrank 270,000 from a year before to 770,000. That of workers who voluntarily quit their jobs was up by 30,000 to 990,000.
The number of those who are hired fell 130,000 to 59.28 million for the first decline in four months. Analyzing the figure, the government said that certain groups of people have temporarily stopped looking for job as the quake has cast a shadow over Japan's economic outlook.
The March and fiscal 2010 data were compiled by excluding three prefectures severely damaged by the natural disaster -- Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima -- as the government was unable to collect data. This may have led to the missing of data on some 5 million people, the internal affairs ministry said.