Japan's jobless rate held steady in May, while consumer prices fell for the fourth straight month, the government said Friday.

The jobless rate stood at 3.8% in May, unchanged from the previous month and at a 9-year low, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.

Meanwhile, the country's core CPI for May fell 0.1% from the same month the year before, the Ministry said.

A separate report showed that household spending rose for a fifth month.

Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui said in May that price falls wouldn't necessarily prevent the bank from raising the key rate from 0.5% as long as it's confident about the prospects for economic growth.

While unemployment has fallen from 5.4% in 2002 to 4.1% at the end of 2006 and 3.8% in May 2007, wages have not moved. Statistics published by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare show that the average Japanese made $2,881 a month in 2002. For most of 2006, the average monthly wage was only $2,749.

Large Japanese companies such as Japan Railways raised annual pay for a married worker with two children, by the equivalent of $100 earlier this year.

Japanese companies have kept wages in check in part by shifting more work to part-time employees, who now constitute over 33% of Japan's workforce, up from 20% in 1992.