The unemployment rate in Japan jumped 0.3 percentage points to 4.4% in February, overshooting expectations that the figure would come to be 4.3% and bringing the metric to a three-year high. Accompanying the move was a sharp decrease in the job-to-applicant ratio of 0.08 points to 0.59, the most drastic decline in the measure in 35 years.
Labor weakness comes on the back of a 12th consecutive month of shrinking consumer spending. The second month of this year saw the spending metric dip into negative territory for the 12th consecutive period. Vehicle production has nearly come to a screeching halt with February witnessing a 56.2% decline in the number of vehicles produced. Overall industrial production has contracted 38.4% from the year prior in February, a preliminary estimate suggests.