The unemployment rate edged up in June but remained near the lowest level in a quarter of a century as Japan continued to grapple with a severe labor crunch, government data showed Tuesday.

The nationwide jobless rate stood at 2.4 percent, up from 2.2 percent the previous month, due to an increase in people who quit their jobs to find better work, according to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry.

Of the seasonally adjusted 1.66 million people who were unemployed, 700,000 quit voluntarily while 430,000 were involuntary and 360,000 were people newly seeking jobs.