Japan’s jobless rate at lowest in nearly 25 yrs

TOKYO: Japan’s jobless rate stood at 2.4 percent in January, the lowest in nearly 25 years, official data showed Friday, a major boost for the world’s third-largest economy.

The figure -- the lowest since April 1993 when the rate hit 2.3 percent -- comes as Japan has notched up eight straight quarters of economic growth, the longest positive run since the “bubble” boom days of the late 1980s.