The nation's biggest businesses kicked off recruiting events Saturday for university juniors expected to graduate in spring 2014.
The job market appears to be picking up after recruitment was curbed by the 2008 global financial crisis, but there is still a chance hiring might be pared in anticipation of a slowdown in exports.
According to the education and labor ministries, 63.1 percent of students scheduled to graduate next spring had lined up jobs as of October, up for the second consecutive year.
Large businesses last year started pushing back recruiting events for college juniors, such as employment policy briefings, to Dec. 1 — or two months later than normal — in response to criticism that their early recruiting events were causing students to skip classes.