TOKYO: The number jobless people in Japan in November fell by 150,000, or 9.0 pct, from the previous month to 1.51 million after seasonal adjustment, hitting the lowest level since January 1993, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Friday.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate in the latest reporting month stood at 2.2 percent, down 0.2 percentage point from October and dropping for the first time in four months, the ministry also said.

The decrease in jobless people came as more and more job seekers found employment amid a prolonged labor shortage. The employment situation is "steadily improving," a ministry official said.

The drop was also attributed to the dwindling number of people voluntarily quitting their jobs.

Separately, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said that the ratio of effective job openings to job seekers in November stood at 1.57 after seasonal adjustment, unchanged from October.

New job openings in the manufacturing sector plunged 19.3 percent year on year before seasonal adjustment, due to the impact of the US-China trade war. But the downward move had little effect on job openings as a whole.

The job openings ratio represents the number of jobs available to each job seeker registered at Hello Work public job placement offices nationwide. In November, the number of job openings fell 0.2 percent from the previous month after seasonal adjustment, while that of job seekers grew 0.3 percent.

By prefecture, the job availability ratio was highest in Toyama, central Japan, at 2.08. The lowest ratio was 1.26, posted in the western prefecture of Kochi.

JIJI Press