Japan’s jobless rate rises to 4.7% in April

TOKYO—Japan’s unemployment rate rose to 4.7 percent in April, up 0.1 percentage points from a month earlier, with figures from the disaster-hit northeast excluded, the government said Tuesday.

The number of jobless people stood at 3.09 million, down 300,000 from a year earlier, in the 11th straight month of year-on-year decline, the official data showed.

The reading for April was in line with market expectations.

Separate data showed job availability had worsened in April, with 61 positions available for every 100 jobseekers compared with 63 in the previous month, the health, labour and welfare ministry said.