A record-low 67.8 percent of high school students due to graduate in spring had lined up jobs as of Dec. 31, the education ministry said Thursday.
The figure, up slightly from 63.4 percent registered in November, is 3.5 percentage points down from December 1999, when the rate was 71.3 percent. In December 2000, 72.8 percent of graduating students had jobs to go to.
Around 82,000 students have yet to find employment, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry said.
Of around 253,000 students surveyed at public and private schools, 72.8 percent of male students and 62 percent of female students said they have found jobs for when they graduate.
Both figures were down 5 percentage points from a year earlier.
By prefecture, Okinawa was lowest at 32.4 percent, followed by Miyagi at 49.9 percent and Fukuoka at 53 percent. The highest was Gifu at 86.9 percent. Toyama came second with 85.4 percent and Mie third at 84.4 percent
The education ministry will soon call on business organizations to expand recruitment quotas and jointly work with the labor ministry to hold seminars for job advisers at high schools, ministry officials said.