TOKYO (AP) - Japan's unemployment rate stood at a record high 5 percent in August, unchanged from July and underlining a deteriorating economy that has eroded jobs in manufacturing, construction and retail, the government said Friday. Job conditions are likely to worsen in the months ahead, analysts say, as Japan's hopes for recovery are squelched by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that are almost certain to prolong the slowdown in the United States and dampen consumer spending. Japan was already battling a deep downturn when the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon happened. In July, the nation recorded its worst ever unemployment rate of 5 percent since the government began keeping track in 1953. "Things are extremely bad," said Kenji Watanabe, a commentator and researcher on labor issues. "A quick turnaround can't be expected." Japan is stuck in an old-style economy that can no longer produce the growth that had continued since the 1950s. For decades of modernization until the mid-1990s, Japan managed to keep its unemployment rate at 1 percent and 2 percent levels. The U.S. unemployment rate is now at 4.9 percent, although that is expected to rise in the wake of the thousands of layoffs announced in the airline industry and other companies after the attacks. The government said the number of people without jobs totaled 3.36 million in August. Those with jobs in August stood at 64.4 million, down 0.1 percent from 64.5 million from July. People who lost jobs through layoffs and other corporate restructuring increased by 60,000 to more than a million people in August from the same month last year. Those who left their jobs voluntarily jumped by 100,000 from a year ago, ballooning to 1.2 million people. Major Japanese companies generally avoid outright layoffs and try to uphold this nation's lifetime employment system. But some companies can coax workers to quit on their own by dropping hints and making office life miserable. The practice is so common Japanese have a special phrase to describe it, which means "tap on the shoulder." Japan's Parliament will be discussing during the session that began Thursday a bill to help the unemployed find jobs. Such measures are still lacking because job-hopping and job-hunting were not as common here as in the West.