Tokyo, (IANS) : Japan’s unemployment rate dropped to 3 per cent in July marking the lowest level in 21 years, the government announced on Tuesday.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the unemployment rate on a seasonally adjusted basis was 3 per cent in July, with the the number of employed persons in the recording month totalling to 64.79 million, an increase of 980,000 or 1.5 per cent from the previous year, Xinhua news agency reported.

The number of unemployed persons in July, meanwhile, was 2.03 million, the ministry said, which is a decrease of 190,000 or 8.6 per cent from the previous year.

The job availability in Japan held steady in July at 1.37, which means that there were 137 positions available for every 100 people looking for work.

For women, the unemployment rate dropped 0.3 percentage point to 2.7 per cent and for men it was unchanged in July at 3.2 per cent.

This option to leave their jobs of their own volition came in at a seasonally adjusted 870,000 in the recording month, said the ministry.

Separately, the ministry’s data also showed that household spending in Japan fell a seasonally-adjusted 0.5 per cent in July from a year earlier to 278,067 yen ($2,728).