TOKYO: Japan's unemployment rate stood at 2.4 percent in October after seasonal adjustment, unchanged from the previous month, the internal affairs ministry said Friday.

The number of jobless people decreased by 10,000 to 1.66 million.

Before seasonal adjustment, the number of people holding jobs rose by 620,000 from a year before to a record 67.87 million, on the back of a rise in the number of working women and elderly people.

The number of female workers increased by 460,000 to 30.37 million.

The employment rate for people aged between 15 and 64 climbed 0.8 percentage point to a record 78.2 percent. For women in the same age group, the employment rate rose 1.3 points to 71.8 percent, also a record high.

Separately, the labor ministry said the ratio of job openings to job seekers in October stood at 1.57 after seasonal adjustment, unchanged from the previous month.

While job openings decreased mainly in the manufacturing sector due to the impact of the US-China trade war, job seekers dropped for the first time in six months.

The job openings-to-seekers ratio represents the number of jobs available to each job seeker registered at Hello Work public job placement offices nationwide.

In October, the number of job openings and job seekers fell 0.9 percent each.

By prefecture, the job availability ratio was highest in Toyama and Fukui, at 2.09. The lowest ratio was 1.25 in Kochi.

The unadjusted number of new job offers fell 4.0 percent from a year before, dropping for the third month in a row. In the manufacturing sector, the number tumbled 15.6 percent, marking the ninth consecutive month of decrease.

JIJI Press