The Japanese cabinet has approved a new budget for the next financial year -- after fresh evidence on the depth of the country's recession.

Figures just published show unemployment in Japan has reached record levels, because ofindustrial lay-offs and a continuing decline in consumer spending.

The jobless rate of four-point-four percent -- equal to that of the United States -- is the highest since the Japanese government began collecting data in its present form, in 1953.

The new budget allows for record spending of nearly seven hundred and five billion dollars, but the government has warned that it will add to Japan's mounting debt.