The unemployment rate in Japan fell to the lowest level in 26 years in 2018, as businesses sought to hire more workers amid a deepening labor shortage, government data showed Friday.
The average jobless rate stood at 2.4 percent, down 0.4 percentage point from the previous year and the lowest figure since 1992, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
The number of unemployed fell by 240,000 to 1.66 million, the ninth consecutive year of decline. The world's third-largest economy added 1.34 million jobs, bringing the number of people in work to 66.64 million, the most since comparable data became available in 1953.