Companies across Japan officially started job interviews on Thursday for university seniors looking for employment after graduation in March next year. A survey shows, however, many students had already received provisional job offers.

Under guidelines laid down by the Japanese government, job interviews for prospective university graduates are set to start from June 1.

A leading trading firm, Itochu Corporation, for example, says it started online job interviews on Thursday.

A survey shows that as of late April, the ratio of job offers to university seniors looking for employment stood at 1.71. That is up 0.13 points from the same period last year, reflecting a marked increase in the number of employers that want to boost their hires as the economy recovers from the pandemic.

The economic recovery is leading to labor shortages across many industries, and in response, a large number of corporate employers had already started job interviews before June 1.

A survey shows that as of mid-May, 72 percent of upcoming university graduates had already received job offers, up 6.7 points compared to the same period last year.