The employment rate for those who graduated from colleges in March rose for the second straight year to 93.9 percent as of April 1, up 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier, according to government data released on Friday.

But the rate is still 3 points below its peak in 2008, and around 24,000 graduates are believed to remain jobless.

The employment figures exclude those who went to graduate schools or stayed on in college for another year because they could not find jobs.

Among all graduates, the rate for landing jobs came to 66 percent, according to data released by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry.

The employment rate for female graduates came to 94.7 percent, up 2.1 percentage points, surpassing that of male graduates, which stood at 93.2 percent, down 1.3 percentage points. Endi