Wear a skirt, keep the top of your blouse unbuttoned and smile.

This is what some women were told during job interviews and company seminars this year, according to a "1999 Summer Employment Black Paper" compiled last week by a group of female university students seeking jobs.

The prolonged recession and the contracted job market have made this year's job search even more severe than last year's "job-hunting ice age," and women are frequent victims of demeaning comments during interviews, according to the paper.

Published annually by the Female Students Who Will Not Give Up Job Opportunities, a national network organized in 1994, the paper includes anecdotes from street interviews with 147 women and 55 men on the current job market as of July.

Comments that were received included:

1) "I'm afraid the job hunt will last all year."

2) "They kept asking me if I had a boyfriend."

3) "Women need to look good. I was told that a low-cut top is a good weapon."

Despite the Equal Employment Opportunity Law that took effect in April, prohibiting discriminatory hiring practices, many women complained that they failed to get a response when they asked for materials on the company, the paper said.

The average amount spent by women for their job hunt was 88,900 yen, in contrast to 77,600 yen for men, the paper said.

Both men and women complained about the difficulty of balancing their quest for a job with university exams, and lamented the high transportation costs required for interviews and company tours.

To contact the support group, which has some 300 members, call (042) 572-5848.