Japan's job availability logged its first drop in five months in February amid the government's second state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Tuesday.
The job-to-applicant ratio worsened to 1.09 from 1.10 in January, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, meaning that there were 109 job openings for every 100 job seekers. But it was still higher than 1.05 marked in December.
Separate data from the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry showed the February jobless rate stood at 2.9%, unchanged from the previous month.