Japan's unemployment rate rose to 4% in September from 3.8% the previous month, worse than market expectations.
But the total number of unemployed declined by 110,000 from a year earlier to 2.69 million in September, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.
Economists had on average expected the jobless rate to hold steady at 3.8%. The unemployment rate is watched closely for evidence of expanded hiring by Japanese companies and positive knock-on effects for consumer spending.
The jobless rate stood at 3.6% in July, which was the lowest rate since February 1998. The male jobless rate rose to 4% from 3.8% in August, while the female unemployment rate also increased to 4% from 3.7%, the ministry said.
In a separate report, the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry said the ratio of job offers to job seekers in September came to 1.05 on a seasonally adjusted basis, down from 1.06 in August.
This means there were 105 jobs available for every 100 job seekers in September. But the number of full-time job offers fell to 62 for every 100 job seekers, down from 64 reported a year earlier, the ministry said. The number of new job offers declined 13.2% in September from the year earlier.
