92 Pct of Job-Hunting Univ. Students in Japan Get Offers

Tokyo, March 17 (Jiji Press)–Jobs had been informally offered to 92 pct of employment-seeking university students in Japan scheduled to graduate this month as of Feb. 1, the labor and education ministries said Tuesday. The job-securing rate remained high due to labor shortages, though it fell from a year earlier in the first decline in five years. The rate was down 0.6 percentage point from a year before, when it hit the highest level on record dating back to 2000. The share of male students who have secured informal job offers came to 90.9 pct, down 0.7 point, while that of female students declined 0.4 point to 93.4 pct. The job offer rate went down 0.8 point to 91.9 pct for those majoring in humanities and social sciences, but students who are majoring in science saw their rate inch up 0.4 point to 92.8 pct. By location of universities, the job-securing rate was highest in the Chugoku and Shikoku western region, at 94.2 pct, up 6.2 points. The rate was also up in the Kinki, Chubu and Kyushu regions. The rate dropped 2 points to 93.9 pct in Kanto, which includes Tokyo, and was lowest in the Hokkaido and Tohoku northern region, at 83.1 pct, down 8.2 points. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]