GLOBAL ECONOMIC REPORTER

The Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan released its monthly survey of consumer confidence for the month of June. The result shows Japanese consumers are less gloomy about the state of the economy. The overall confidence index rose 0.8 percentage point to 38.9 from a month earlier and 4.4 percentage points from June of 2008. June marks the 6th consecutive month of improvement in consumer confidence since December of 2008, where the index hit a historic low of 27.6.

The Statistics Bureau of Japan reported that the unemployment rate rose to 5.2% in May, a 0.2 percentage point increase from April and 1.2 percentage point increase from May of 2008. The unemployment rate for male workers was slightly higher at 5.4% than that for female workers at 4.9% in May. The Japanese economy experiences much lower unemployment rates historically than other advanced economies. The average unemployment rate since 1980 is 3.3%.