High school graduates-to-be are distressed with very few job offers

Only 51.9 percent of those high school students who are seeking employment for after graduation next March have secured jobs. The percentage is two points lower than last year and the lowest since the end of WWII.

The survey the Japan Senior High School Teachers Unions (Nikkokyo) and the National Federation of Private School Teachers and Staffs Union (Shikyoren) jointly conducted showed that some 100,000 students of 412 high schools in 28 prefectures had no job prospects for after graduation as of October.

Respondents of the survey complained that the number of job offers is much fewer than last year due to the serious negative effects of major companies' restructuring upon small- and medium-sized enterprises and companies' increasing dependence on temporary staff services.

A teacher in Fukushima Prefecture said that he has visited about 100 companies in the prefecture, but that 90 percent of them declined to offer jobs to graduates of his school even though most of those in the construction and manufacturing industries have employed graduates so far every year.

Nikkokyo Secretary Kitano Shoji said that such difficulty for high school graduates-to-be in finding jobs is a serious social problem for Japan's future.

He requested that major companies with higher social responsibilities take urgent steps to employ at least one high school graduate.

He also demanded that the central and local governments create jobs in the public service sectors. (end)