(MENAFN- QNA) Japan's unemployment rate dropped to 3.5% in August from 3.8% the previous month, marking the first improvement in three months, government data showed Tuesday, but the reduction was not necessarily a positive sign for the nation's economy, according to an official.
Behind the fall in the rate is that unemployed women stopped looking for a job, the official at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said, indicating they have given up entering the workforce with the April 1 consumption tax hike hurting the economy.
The number of people who newly began seeking work fell a seasonally adjusted 120,000 to 660,000, the ministry said, adding the unemployment rate for women slid 0.5 percentage point to 3.2% while that for men was flat at 3.8%, Japan's News Agency (Kyodo) reported.
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