The unemployment rate hit a record-high 4.9 percent in June, with the rate for men reaching an all-time high of 5.1 percent, the Management and Coordination Agency reported Friday.
On the same day, the Labor Ministry announced that the ratio of job offers to job seekers in June stayed at a record-low 0.46 for the second consecutive month. The ratio means there were only 46 job offers for every 100 job seekers.
"The nation's employment situation is becoming increasingly severe," the ministry said.
The latest overall jobless rate, seasonally adjusted, follows a 4.6 percent reading in May and the previous record high -- 4.8 percent -- in March and April. The agency began tracking the data in 1953.
An agency official said that a particularly notable aspect of the June statistics was the 5.1 percent jobless rate for men. The rate first reached 5 percent in April but dipped to 4.9 percent in May before rising again in June.
The highest jobless rates in that category were found in those above 50.
The official said the rate for men between 55 and 64 was 7.2 percent. It was 4.9 percent for those between 55 and 59, up from 4.4 percent in the previous month, and 10.3 percent for men between 60 and 64, down from about 11 percent the two months before.
The record high 1.18 million workers who lost their livelihoods far exceeds the 1.03 million who have quit, indicating that corporate restructuring has taken its toll mainly on men in their late 50s and early 60s, since their rates are the highest.
And once they lose their jobs, their prospects for new work seem slim.