Offers for jobs starting in April have been secured by 73.4 percent of the nation's university seniors looking for work since December, up 7.8 percentage points from a year earlier, Recruit Career Co. said.

The percentage increase indicates companies are now more willing to employ new university graduates amid improving economic conditions.

Based on a survey of 1,645 university and graduate students due to graduate this month, the operator of the rikunabi job website said Tuesday that 19.7 percent of university seniors had not found jobs as of December, down 5.6 points.

Some firms have indicated that in 2014 they plan to lower regulations for recent university graduates in order to achieve recruitment targets, a survey said.