A survey showed Thursday that 58.0 percent of university students had secured job offers as of July ahead of graduation in March, improving from the previous two years in line with a pickup in the economy.
The number of undergraduate and graduate students who found jobs rose 5.0 percentage points from last year, when many companies postponed recruiting due to the March 2011 disasters, according to Mynavi Corp., an employment information firm. The level is up 3.5 percentage points from July 2010.
Usual recruiting starts in December for juniors or first-year graduate students, with job offers made as early as April.
The survey showed 66.9 percent of male students in science and engineering found jobs, up 7.0 points from a year earlier, compared with 61.7 percent for female students in those majors, up 7.6 points. The rate for male students in humanities, such as liberal arts, was 56.7 percent, up 2.4 points, with that for female students up 5.4 points to 51.2 percent.
The July 27-Aug. 2 poll had 4,219 respondents.