Japan's unemployment rate is expected to breach the key psychological threshold of 5 percent in coming months as the government presses ahead with painful structural reforms, a Reuters survey of economists showed.
The poll of 28 economists forecast unemployment hitting a median 5 percent in the July-September quarter and continuing to rise the following summer.
That compares with a current jobless rate of 4.9 percent, the highest since records began in 1953, according to the latest government data.
Unemployment has more than doubled since Japan's asset-inflated "bubble" economy collapsed in the early 1990s. The number of jobless people in May was 3.48 million, out of a working population of 68.21 million.
The economists see employment conditions deteriorating further next year, with the jobless rate peaking at a median 5.3 percent in July-September 2002, the poll showed.
They forecast unemployment at a median 5.0 percent for the current fiscal year that started in April, with predictions ranging from 4.8 percent to 5.6 percent.
All but one of the economists forecast the jobless rate at 5 percent or higher by July-September 2002.
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