Japan Unemployment Rate Rises as Noda Becomes Prime Minister
Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) — Japan’s jobless rate rose for a second month and retail sales dropped, underscoring the challenge for incoming Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in securing Japan’s recovery from the March 11 earthquake. The unemployment rate rose to 4.7 percent in July as payrolls fell by 40,000 from a month earlier, the statistics bureau said today in Tokyo. Retail sales slid a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent from June, a Trade Ministry report showed. Noda, who was elected premier by the lower house of parliament today, inherits a recovery under threat from an advancing yen and a global slowdown. A … Read more