Gakujo Co., Ltd. conducted an online survey on recruitment for the 2028 graduating class targeting HR personnel at companies and organizations. Nearly 80% of companies predict that the trend of earlier recruitment will "intensify further." The top three periods for starting the selection process were the three months leading up to the end of the year, accounting for a total of 37.1%, and including December, nearly 70% of companies plan to start the selection process by the end of the year.
Many companies now conduct internships and open company events during the summer of the third year of university (first year of graduate school), and early selection processes are being implemented for participants, leading to an acceleration of recruitment and job hunting.
We then conducted a survey of human resources personnel at companies and organizations (valid responses: 450 companies) and asked whether they thought the trend of earlier recruitment would intensify for the 2028 graduating class. 39.6% answered "I think it will be earlier," and when combined with the 36.7% who answered "somewhat earlier," a total of 76.3% predicted further earlier recruitment.
In addition to comments about corporate trends such as "there is a first-come, first-served trend," "major companies are starting their recruitment process earlier," and "it seems that more companies will try to secure students early," there have also been comments such as "students' awareness and actions seem to be starting earlier each year," "more students feel they will be left behind if they don't participate in internships," and "some students are starting to take action from their first or second year."
When asked when the selection process for 2028 graduates would begin, including those already completed, the most common answer was "October of the third year" at 16.4%, followed by "December of the third year" at 10.9%, and "November of the third year" at 9.8%, with the top three months leading up to the end of the year accounting for a total of 37.1%. Including those who started by December, the total rises to 68.4%.
The next most common month was "March," but it only accounted for 8.7%, indicating a break from the long-standing practice of starting the selection process after the lifting of the ban on recruitment advertising. On the other hand, "April," the year before, immediately after entering the third year, accounted for 8.2%, a sharp increase from 2.4% in the same period of the previous year. A total of 17.5% of companies, up to "June," had already started their selection process by the time of this survey. A notable feature of this survey is that the start dates of the selection process are dispersed among spring, the end of the year, and March of the third year.
The most common plan for issuing informal job offers was "December of the third year," accounting for 21.8% of responses. This is likely due to companies conducting early selection processes through internships and open company events concentrating their efforts in December to secure a certain number of informal job offers before the end of the year. As of December, 47.3% of companies plan to start issuing informal job offers before the end of the year, followed by "April of the fourth year" and "June of the fourth year or later," both at 11.1%.
