Japan College Students' Job-Securing Rate Hits Record Low

Tokyo, Jan. 18 (Jiji Press)--The percentage of college students in
Japan who as of Dec. 1 were promised employment after their graduation this
spring hit a record low of 68.8 pct, the government said Tuesday.
The rate, lowest since comparable data became available in 1996, is
down 4.3 percentage points from the year-before level, the previous low,
falling for the third straight year, according to a survey by the education
and labor ministries.
The decline reflected a drop in the number of job offers in an
economic downturn as well as companies' moves to hire mid-career
professionals as they cannot afford to educate new graduates, a labor
ministry official said.
Science students saw their job-securing rate falling 7.3 points to
71.3 pct, while the rate for arts students dropped 3.7 points to 68.3 pct.
The job-securing rate was 70.1 pct for male college students, down
2.9 points, and 67.4 pct for female students, down 5.8 points.
The rate for female two-year college students hit a record low of
45.3 pct, down 2.1 points.
The job-securing rate for college students in the Hokkaido-Tohoku
northern Japan region rose 0.4 points to 69.9 pct, while the rate went down
in all the other areas, with the Chubu central Japan region recording a drop
of 8.0 points to 61.7 pct.
Meanwhile, the job-securing rate for prospective high school
graduates as of the end of November rose for the first time in three years
to 70.6 pct, up 2.5 points from a year before.
The rise reflected the reinforcement of career guidance at school
that helped students to choose jobs suitable for them, the labor ministry
official said.
The number of job openings for high school students fell 0.8 pct to
174,000, while that of job seekers rose 0.6 pct to 168,000, with the job
offers-to-seekers ratio standing at 1.03, down 0.02 point.
The job-securing rate was 75.8 pct, up 2.7 points, for male high
school students and 63.7 pct, up 2.0 points, for female students.
Fukui Prefecture had the highest rate of 87.9 pct, followed by
Toyama with 86.9 pct. Okinawa and Hokkaido ranked lowest, with 41.4 pct and
50.3 pct respectively.


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