Tokyo, Sha'ban 29, 1435, Jun 27, 2014, SPA -- Japan's unemployment rate declined to 3.5 percent in May amid signs of economic recovery, the government said Friday. The number of temporary and part-time workers jumped by 300,000 from a year earlier to 19.21 million, while that of regular employees grew by only 10,000 to 33.24 million, dpa quoted the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications as saying. The proportion of such non-regular employees in the labor force hit a record high of 36.7 per cent in 2013 for the fifth straight year of rise, compared with 26 per cent in 2000, a government report showed. The ministry also reported on Friday that the income of Japanese workers' households dropped 4.6 per cent from a year earlier to 421,117 yen (4,128 dollars) in May for the eighth consecutive month of fall despite reported pay raises at big companies. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare reported that the availability of jobs - measured as the ratio of job offers per job seeker - inched up to 1.09 in May from the previous month, the highest in 22 years. --SPA 15:15 LOCAL TIME 12:15 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w