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Business trends

Shortage of science grads vexes Japanese companies

Businesses plan recruiting uptick in 2020 as more industries pursue tech talent

A job fair for Japanese college students at Makuhari Messe near Tokyo. Companies are seeking more technology majors than ever.

TOKYO -- Companies recruiting technology majors from Japanese universities are bracing for another year of missed targets as the supply of graduates fails to keep pace with broad demand for such skills as AI engineering and data analysis.

Businesses aim to hire 11.7% more science and technology college students graduating in spring 2020, marking a sixth straight year of double-digit increases, according to a Nikkei survey released Friday. This is 7.5 percentage points higher than the increase for humanities majors. In addition to talent in cutting-edge fields, mechanical engineers and pharmacists are also seeing brisk demand.

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