The unemployment rate rose by 1 percentage point to 4.2 percent in December, as the stronger yen and global economic slowdown prompted manufacturers to cut their workforces to the lowest level in over 50 years, the government reported Friday.
Reflecting weak exports and industrial output, the number of employees in the manufacturing industry fell by 350,000 from a year earlier to 9.98 million, dipping below the 10 million mark for the first time since June 1961, data released by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry showed.
At a news conference, labor minister Norihisa Tamura said "the Cabinet as a whole has to consider" how to grapple with the continued hollowing out of the nation's industry.