Japan job availability up, unemployment down in Jan. despite emergency

Japan's job availability increased and the unemployment rate fell in January, government data showed Tuesday, indicating the immediate impact of the country's second pandemic-related state of emergency was limited.The job availability ratio rose to 1.10 in January from 1.05 a month earlier, meaning that there were 110 openings for every 100 job seekers, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said.The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 2.9 percent from 3.0 percent for November and December, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said. The December figure was rev…READ FULL ARTICLE