Unemployment in Japan reached its highest level in almost six years last month as employers in the manufacturing sector continued to feel the effects of the global economic slowdown.

According to the latest figures released by the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the national unemployment rate grew to 5.2 per cent at the end of May, up from the rate of five per cent recorded in April.

This rate, which was the highest reading since September 2003, was caused largely by ongoing job cuts being made by manufacturing firms, with 880,000 positions in the sector lost over the course of May, following on from the 630,000 and 420,000 jobs lost in April and March respectively.

Furthermore, the government has conceded that this trend is set to continue for some time yet as employers struggle to turn their fortunes around.

"We don't think firms will start hiring workers actively any time soon, despite the recent pickup in output, because the pickup is fairly moderate," a government spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal.

However, at the same time Bloomberg have quoted a senior Japan economist at UBS AG in Tokyo as stating that both production and consumer sentiment levels in the country are on the rise, with this likely to benefit jobseekers in the coming months.