Tokyo - Japan's core consumer price index (CPI) rose in September from a year before due to rising oil and food prices, and the nation's average household spending declined as people spent less on food, the government data showed Friday.

The nation's core CPI, excluding fresh food prices, rose 2.3 per cent in September, compared to a year before, as energy prices grew 14.7 per cent and non-perishable food prices rose 4.2 per cent, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said.

The CPI stood at 102.6 against 100 for the base year of 2005.

As prices rose, the nation's average households spent 2.3 per cent less in September than the same month a year before. Spending amounted to 281,433 yen in the reporting month.

Average household expenditures for food fell 3.8 per cent and for utilities was down 6.3 per cent, the ministry reports showed.

Average income at wage-earning households fell 2 per cent to 433,502 yen in real terms, which was the first fall in two months.

The nation's unemployment rate dipped 0.2 point to 4 per cent in September in seasonally adjusted terms, compared to August, as more men stopped searching for jobs amid the financial crisis, the government said.

In the reporting month, 2.71 million people were unemployed, up 20,000 year-on-year.

There were 84 jobs available for every 100 job seekers, which marked the lowest ratio since August 2004, a separate report showed.

The number of job offers in September declined 2.5 per cent from August, but the number of job seekers increased 0.6 per cent.

The number of male jobholders fell 290,000 in September to 37.32 million from a year before, while the number of female jobholders stayed unchanged at 26.6 million.

The number of employees fell at firms with fewer than 500 workers, while it rose at companies with 500 or more workers, the government statistics said. (dpa)