The government said Tuesday that 93.6 percent of March college graduates were employed as of the April 1 start of the 2012 business year, up 2.6 percentage points from a year earlier and marking the first year-on-year upturn in four years.
The percentage of college students who found jobs stood at low levels in previous surveys conducted by the labor and education ministries on Oct. 1, Dec. 1 and Feb. 1, but it surged shortly before the March graduation.
"Job consultants at the government's Hello Work job-placement offices introduced students mainly to small and midsize companies from January to March, and such efforts bore fruit," labor minister Yoko Komiyama said at a news conference.