Japan's unemployment rate edged up by 0.1 percentage points to 4.3 per cent 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, dpa quoted the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications as saying. 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 per cent for the third consecutive year of increase, the ministry said in mid-February. Meanwhile, the availability of jobs, measured as a ratio of job offers per job seekers, was flat at 0.85 in February, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said.
