Japan's jobless rate jumped to its highest in more than four years in March and household spending extended its slide, underscoring the ongoing pain for the world's second-biggest economy. Prices also fell.

A day after the government released a bullish report on industrial production, it said today that unemployment rose to 4.8 percent, up from 4.4 percent in February and the worst reading since August 2004.

The actual number of unemployed jumped 25 percent from a year earlier to 3.35 million, while the number of employed workers fell 1.4 percent.