Friday was the official start date for leading companies to begin recruiting activities, mainly for university students who will graduate next spring.
As there is a trend toward a seller's market -- in which students have a strong position -- not a few companies have in fact already proceeded to select substantial numbers of students and give informal job offers to some of them. The trend of undertaking job hunting activities early has been spreading.
Leading trading company Sumitomo Corp. has begun its first-round of interviews at six locations in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, among other cities
Shortly after 9 a.m. on Friday, tense-looking students in dark formal suits appeared at the firm's headquarters in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, and registered for job interviews one after another.
A 21-year-old student from Hitotsubashi University, who has already received informal job offers from two companies, said: "It's said to be a sellers' market, but jobs for popular trading companies are very competitive. I want to present myself well in this interview."
The job openings-to-applications ratio for university students, which indicates the number of openings that exist per student, is 1.88, up 0.1 percentage point from the previous year. This marks a high near to the figure seen right before the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008.
In response to a market that favors job seekers, recruitment activities for those who graduate in spring 2019 have gradually picked up speed in the past year, in the form of internship programs.
The season for information sessions held by leading companies kicked off on March 1.
According to a Recruit Career Co. survey, 42.7 percent of university students had received informal job offers as of May 1, up 7.6 points from a year earlier. Recruiting activities among leading companies have already entered their final phase.
Many leading companies are scheduled to hold unofficial job offer ceremonies on Oct. 1, while the job-hunting season for small and midsize companies is expected to continue through autumn and winter.
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