The job placement rate for high school graduates hit a seven-year high this spring, due to a fall in the number of graduates and a pick-up in the economy, the education ministry said Friday.
The number of new high school graduates assured of employment came to some 205,000 as of March 31, about the same as a year earlier. But the total number of student job-seekers fell to 225,000 from 230,000, it said.
The job placement rate thus rose to 91.2 percent from the previous year's 89.0 percent, exceeding 90 percent for the first time since 1998.
"A moderate economic recovery was coupled with a decrease in the number of students, which in turn expanded their employment opportunities," said a ministry official.