Nov 19, 2025
A Japanese government survey found that 33.8% of students who graduated from university in March 2022 had left their first job within three years.
A survey conducted by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare on new graduates changing jobs found that 33.8% of those who graduated from university in March 2022 had left their first job within three years (by March 2025). This is a decrease of 1.1 percentage points compared to the previous year. The rate was 44.5% among graduates of junior colleges and vocational schools (down 0.1 point) and 37.9% among high school graduates (down 0.5 points). In contrast to these decreases, the rate among those entering the workforce directly after junior high school rose by 3.6 points to 54.1%.
The number of new graduates who found employment in March 2022 was 449,012 for university graduates, 142,455 for junior college and vocational school graduates, 137,458 for high school graduates, and 675 junior high school graduates.
Due in the part to the increase in job openings in 2021 that followed a drop at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate for recent graduates changing jobs announced in 2024 for 2021 graduates reached a 16-year high of 34.92%. Although the rate subsequently declined, it still remains relatively high this year.
The chart below shows the rate for leaving a first job according to company size, indicating that the smaller the company, the more likely a graduate is to leave.
Among university graduates, the industry with the highest proportion of recent graduates leaving their first job within three years was the accommodation and food-service sector (55.4%), followed by lifestyle-related services and entertainment (54.7%), education and learning support (44.2%), medical and welfare services (40.8%), and the retail sector (40.4%). The ranking was similar for high-school graduates, with accommodation and food-service on top (64.7%), followed by lifestyle-related services and entertainment (61.5%), education and learning support (53.6%), medical and welfare services (49.2%), and the retail sector (48.3%).
Data Sources
(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)