Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate reached a nearly six-year high of 5.2 percent in May, with job availability dropping to the lowest level on record, the government said June 30.

The rate, the highest since September 2003, rose from 5.0 percent in April.

The 770,000 rise in the number of jobless people was the biggest ever from a year earlier to 3.47 million for the seventh straight monthly increase, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said in a preliminary report.

Of them, 1.10 million had been laid off, up 460,000, the ministry said.

Separate data released by the labor ministry showed the ratio of job offers to job seekers in May was at a seasonally adjusted 0.44, the lowest on record. The ratio, down from 0.46 in the previous month, means that there were 44 jobs available for every 100 job seekers.