The unemployment rate unexpectedly fell from a two-year high and job vacancies tumbled to a four-year low as job seekers stopped looking for work amid an economic slowdown.
The jobless rate fell to 4 percent last month from 4.2 percent in August, the statistics bureau said Friday in Tokyo. The median estimate of 39 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for unemployment to be unchanged. Household spending fell 2.3 percent from a year earlier, the seventh straight decline.
Japan's largest firms, including Sony Corp. and Canon Inc., said profits are deteriorating as a deepening credit crisis dampens demand around the world. Squeezed profits may compel companies to fire workers and cut wages, weakening spending at home.