2ND LD: Sept. jobless rate falls with less men looking for jobs amid slowdown.

TOKYO, Oct. 31 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING ECONOMIST'S COMMENTS AT 12TH-13TH GRAFS, OTHER INFO AT 17TH GRAF)

Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage point from August to 4.0 percent in September, but the decline does not spell an improvement in the job market as it was a result of less men looking for jobs and more women hired as temporary workers amid the slowing economy, the government said Friday.

A separate government report released the same day showed the ratio of job offers to job seekers dropped for the eighth straight month to the lowest level in more than four years in September, hit by corporate reluctance to hire.

The number of jobless people totaled 2.71 million, up 20,000 from a year earlier for the sixth straight monthly rise, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications  said in a preliminary report.

The 4.0 percent jobless rate was lower than the average market forecast of 4.2 percent in a Kyodo News survey.

The jobless rate for men stood at 4.1 percent in September, down 0.2 point from August, and the rate for women was unchanged at 3.9 percent.

The ministry kept unchanged its basic assessment on employment conditions, saying the situation in the future ''continues to require close monitoring.''

A ministry official said more men appear to have stopped searching for jobs in the reporting month as the financial crisis worsened since the Sept. 15 failure of U.S. securities firm Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

While the number of women hired as temporary workers and day laborers is on the rise, men tend to search for opportunities to land full-time jobs, he said.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare separately said the ratio of job offers to job seekers in the reporting month was at a seasonally adjusted 0.84, down from 0.86 in the previous month and lower than a projected 0.85.

The latest ratio -- the lowest since August 2004 -- means there were 84 jobs available for every 100 job seekers.

The number of job offers fell 2.5 percent from August, while the number of job seekers grew 0.6 percent, the labor ministry said. Meanwhile, the number of new job offers dropped 13.4 percent from a year before.

Koichi Haji, chief economist at the NLI Research Institute, said he expects the unemployment rate to gradually rise as Japan's economy will likely decelerate further, following wild fluctuations in financial markets amid the credit crisis.

He also said, ''As the U.S. economy contracted in the July-September quarter with declines in personal consumption, Japan's exports will be negatively affected, resulting in worsening employment conditions.''

According to the internal affairs ministry, the number of jobholders sank 290,000 from a year earlier to 63.93 million, down for the eighth consecutive month.

The number of male jobholders totaled 37.32 million, down 290,000 from a year before. The number of female workers was unchanged at 26.60 million.

The number of people who voluntarily quit their jobs was the same as a year before at 1.08 million, and the number of people who were laid off was also flat at 620,000.

The number of people who started searching for jobs to supplement household incomes, such as homemakers, increased 10,000 to 380,000.

Among the jobless people, the number of household heads expanded 20,000 from a year earlier to 610,000.

By industry, the number of jobholders fell from a year before in the manufacturing, construction and transportation sectors.

By company size, the number of employees shrank in firms with less than 500 workers, compared from a year earlier, but rose in companies with staff of 500 or more. The results underline the gap in business confidence between small and large firms, analysts said.