78.2 Pct of Japan High School Students Land Job Offers

December 14, 2018

Tokyo--A Japanese government survey showed Friday that 78.2 pct of high school students hoping to work after their graduation next spring had secured job offers as of the end of October.

The figure rose 1.0 percentage point from a year before, up for the ninth straight year, according to the education ministry survey.

"The number of job openings is increasing, as companies remain eager about hiring," a ministry official said.

Next spring, 1,060,300 high school students are set to graduate.

Of the total, 186,790 students wish to start working soon after graduation. Employment offers were secured by 146,031 job-seeking students.

The job-securing rate rose 1.0 percentage point to 79.1 pct for male students and 0.9 point to 76.7 pct for female students.

The rate was highest for students on technical courses at 89.8 pct, followed by those taking commerce studies at 83.7 pct and those on agricultural courses at 81.0 pct. The lowest rate was 65.9 pct for students attending general courses.

By prefecture, Aichi had the highest rate at 90.1 pct, followed by Mie at 89.7 pct and Toyama at 88.8 pct.

Okinawa had the lowest rate at 46.8 pct, followed by Hokkaido at 61.6 pct and Kochi at 67.7 pct.

Of the three northeastern prefectures hit hard by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Iwate saw its rate unchanged at 82.8 pct. The figure for Miyagi dropped 0.8 point to 72.4 pct, while that for Fukushima rose 0.3 point to 82.9 pct. Jiji Press