The government and representatives of both employers and unions agreed Thursday to cooperate in solving the growing mismatch between job seekers and job offers, labor ministry officials said.

Chikara Sakaguchi, minister of health, labor and welfare, Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of the Japan Federation of Employers Associations (Nikkeiren), and Etsuya Washio, president of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), agreed on the need to enhance related government measures due to expire in May.

The inability of labor to meet employer demands for people skilled in information technology and other high-tech fields is believed to be a factor behind the high jobless rate, which stayed at a record 4.9 percent in January.

The trio decided to jointly support the creation and preservation of jobs and to hold regional tripartite meetings.

"The employment problem will worsen if we continue ignoring it, with a recovery in the ratio of job offers to seekers stalling in January," Sakaguchi said in the meeting's opening address.

The ratio, a measure of demand for labor, dipped to a seasonally adjusted 0.65 in January from 0.66 the previous month, its first month-to-month decline since May 1999.

Sakaguchi will report the meeting's outcome Friday to a gathering of economic ministers.

Okuda, also chairman of Toyota Motor Corp., was quoted as telling the day's gathering, "It is necessary to deal seriously with economic measures, including those for stock prices. It may be necessary to hammer out emergency employment steps with supplementary budgets."

Said Washio: "The employment problem should be handled by the whole Cabinet."