The government is thinking about creating an emergency task force to combat rising unemployment, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said Monday.
"There's no question that we are in a very severe situation, as seen in the ratio of job offers to job seekers," Hirano told a news conference. "Depending on how things turn out, we will naturally have to think about (setting up the task force)."
Hirano said Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government will have Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan and labor minister Akira Nagatsuma handle the issue together.