77 Pct of New University Grads in Japan Get Jobs

August 3, 2018

Tokyo- The employment rate for university students who graduated in spring this year came to 77.1 pct, up 1.0 percentage point from a year before and hitting the highest level in 25 years, the education ministry said in a preliminary survey report Thursday.

The proportion rose for the eighth consecutive year.

Of the total of some 565,000 graduates, 436,152 had jobs as of May 1. Of them, the number of regular employees came to 419,086, accounting for 74.1 pct of all graduates, up 1.2 points from a year before, while the remaining 17,066 were nonregular employees, such as dispatched and contract workers, accounting for 3.0 pct, down 0.2 point.

"Job offers are increasing thanks to the robust economy," a ministry official said.

The employment rate for university students plummeted to 60.8 pct, for people who graduated in spring 2010, due to the fallout from the global financial crisis triggered by the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008. The rate started to recover later.

Of the new graduates this year, 66,825, or 11.8 pct of the total, down 0.1 point, entered graduate schools or other educational institutions. The share fell for the eighth consecutive year.

The survey also showed that the proportion of female teachers at kindergartens, elementary, junior high and high schools, two-year colleges and four-year universities came to a record high of 52.6 pct as of May 1, up 0.6 point year on year, and the share of women in managerial posts at those institutions, such as school heads, was at 27.9 pct, also an all-time high.

Of all those who graduated from high schools this spring, 54.8 pct successfully entered four-year universities or two-year colleges. The proportion came to a record high of 57.9 pct when people who passed the entrance examinations one or more years after graduation from high schools were included.

The number of elementary and junior high school students stood at 6,427,849 and 3,251,684, respectively, both hitting record lows. Meanwhile, the number of children attending special needs schools rose to a record 143,378. Jiji Press