The employment rate of jobseekers who graduated from universities this spring stood at 97.6 percent, government data showed Friday, in the latest sign of labor shortages in Japan where the population is rapidly aging.

The employment rate for fiscal 2018 that ended in March was the second highest on record after 98.0 percent marked the previous year, according to data compiled by the labor and education ministries. The government began recording such statistics in 1997.

(Students attend a job fair in Chiba, near Tokyo, on March 1, 2019, at the start of the job-hunting season for students graduating from universities in the spring of 2020.)

The proportion of jobseekers among university graduates rose 0.7 percentage point from the previous year to a record 76.0 percent.

Of the jobseekers, some 10,700 students were unable to find a job, according to the survey, which covered 24 national or public universities and 38 private universities.

On the slight fall in the employment rate, a labor ministry official pointed to some students who graduated without getting a job in order to again apply for their top choice companies.

By gender, the employment rate for male students fell 0.2 point to 97.3 percent while that for female students declined 0.8 point to 97.8 percent.

Employment rates stayed high across the country. The Kanto region covering greater Tokyo logged 98.1 percent, down 0.4 point.

A separate survey by the education ministry showed the employment rate for jobseekers who graduated from high schools rose 0.1 point to 98.2 percent at the end of March, marking the ninth consecutive year of increase and standing just below the record 98.3 percent recorded in fiscal 1990 when Japan was experiencing an economic bubble.

Facing a tight labor market, major Japanese firms are changing their employment policy to hire university graduates all year round.

The Japan Business Federation, a powerful business lobby, said last month it will no longer expect its member companies to adhere to the custom of offering jobs to college seniors in October each year to allow the new recruits to start working from the following April, when the new business year starts.