Leverages Inc., which operates the career support service "Career Ticket Shushoku" (https://careerticket.jp/) for new graduate students, conducted a survey on the reality of job hunting targeting 140 university and graduate students scheduled to graduate in March 2028. You can also view the full article here. https://careerticket.jp/media/article/2859/ Over 40% of the Class of 2028 have already had contact with companies at events etc., a 1.5-fold increase compared to the same period for the Class of 2026. About 1 in 5 of the Class of 2028 are "moving up their expected job hunting schedule" due to a high sense of crisis following news of "selective new graduate hiring" due to AI. About 60% of job hunting students are "negative" about the early start of job hunting, a 10pt increase compared to the survey at the same time for the Class of 2026. About 1 in 5 are actually limiting "academic studies". Over 92% of the Class of 2028 plan to participate in summer internships; the response "companies to participate in have already been decided" is about 1.7 times higher than 2 years ago. 1. Over 40% of the Class of 2028 have already had contact with companies at events etc., a 1.5-fold increase compared to the same period for the Class of 2026. When asked about their current job hunting situation, over 40% of students in the Class of 2028 responded that they have already "had contact with companies at events or internships (44.3%)". This was found to be approximately 1.5 times higher than the survey conducted two years ago targeting the Class of 2026*1. *1 Career Ticket Survey, June 2024, "Survey on Awareness Regarding Job Hunting for the Class of 2026 (Part 2)" (https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000666.000010591.html) Over 60% of the Class of 2028 responded that "their desired industry has already been decided (63.6%)", with "manufacturers (44.3%)" being the most common industry of interest. This indicates that students are proactively moving to narrow down their industr