National Average Salary for 2026 High School New Graduates Reaches ¥200,785; Annual Holidays 113.8 Days. Super Seller's Market Continues, Conditions Improve for 2 Consecutive Years. What are the Trends for 2027 Graduates as Job Hunting Season Approaches?

Handy Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Yasuhiro Ota) has re-aggregated 2.82 million job offer data for high school students registered in 'Handy Career Guidance Room,' which is used by over 2,500 high schools nationwide. The results confirmed that both salaries and holidays have continued to improve over the past two years. This trend is expected to continue for high school students graduating in 2027, whose job hunting season will begin in July. Particularly in industries and occupations that are difficult to be replaced by AI, the recruitment of new high school graduates continues to be active.

Against this background, the number of companies listed in 'Handy Career Guidance Room,' which allows direct communication of job companies' appeal to students and parents through high schools, has exceeded 1,700. The number of companies listed in 'High School Graduate Job Navi,' which allows information dissemination without going through high schools for public job information, has also significantly increased.

Our company will continue to develop services that are useful for high school students and their parents who wish to find employment, high school teachers involved in career guidance, and companies promoting high school recruitment.

Re-aggregation results for job offers for high school students graduating in 2026

*Aggregation target: Job offers for 2026 graduates registered in 'Handy Career Guidance Room' between July 1, 2025, and April 30, 2026, totaling 2.82 million. Correspondence course high schools were excluded from the aggregation target.

National average values by fiscal year

(1) Average salary (a+b+c*)

Average salary by fiscal year (a+b+c)

National average finally exceeds 200,000 yen

The salary increased by over 8,000 yen compared to 2025 graduates, breaking the 200,000 yen mark.

*(a+b+c): Calculated by summing basic salary (a), fixed allowances (b), and fixed overtime pay (c) stated in high school job offers, converted to a monthly salary.

(2) Average annual holidays

Average holidays by fiscal year

National average is 113.8 days

This is an increase of 1.4 days compared to 2025 graduates.

Average values by prefecture by fiscal year

*Aggregation method: Aggregated job offers received by high schools based on the high school's location, not the job company's location. Therefore, job offers from other prefectures in addition to those within the same prefecture as the high school are included in the aggregation target. (Correspondence course high schools are excluded)

(1) Average salary (a+b+c)

14 prefectures nationwide exceeded 210,000 yen. The highest average was Kanagawa Prefecture at 219,098 yen, followed by Tokyo at 218,784 yen, and Yamanashi Prefecture at 213,538 yen. In Eastern Japan, salaries are high in Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, and Yamanashi prefectures, while in Western Japan, salaries are high in suburban prefectures close to major metropolitan areas such, as Nara and Tokushima. It is also clear that all prefectures are showing an upward trend.

Average salary by prefecture (a+b+c)

(2) Average annual holidays

Annual holidays also continue to show an improving trend nationwide, with 16 prefectures, mainly in Kanto, Koshinetsu, and Tokai, exceeding 115 days. Although the trend of Eastern Japan having more holidays than Western Japan continues from the past, national standardization is progressing.

Average annual holidays by prefecture

Average values by occupation by fiscal year

*Aggregation method: Classified by our company based on the 'occupation classification code' stated in the job offer. (Correspondence course high schools are excluded)

(1) Average salary (a+b+c)

The highest was 'Construction/Architecture/Civil Engineering' at 210,228 yen, and the lowest was 'Office work' at 193,855 yen. 8 out of all 12 occupations exceeded the 200,000 yen mark, confirming that salary improvements are continuing in all occupations.

Average salary by occupation (a+b+c)

(2) Average annual holidays

The highest number of holidays was 'Information Processing/Communication Technology (IT)' at 120.7 days, and the lowest was 'Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' at 106.5 days. Similar to salaries, improvements in the number of holidays are continuing in all occupations, and the development of a comfortable working environment is progressing.

Average annual holidays by industry

(3) Popular occupations among high school students

The top 3 popular occupations among high school students were 'Office work,' 'Customer service,' and 'Sales,' while 'Construction/Architecture/Civil Engineering' had the highest recruitment difficulty. The top 3 are thought to be influenced by occupations that easily evoke indoor work or office work. On the other hand, office work has the lowest salary level due to its popularity, while conversely, many companies are trying to lower the recruitment difficulty for construction/architecture/civil engineering by setting the highest salary level.

Popular occupations among high school students (smaller values indicate lower recruitment difficulty, larger values indicate higher recruitment difficulty). Values indicate the average number of views required to gain one favorite registration (views ÷ favorites).

Our company will continue to help each high school student take their first step into society with satisfaction through 'High School Graduate Job Navi' and 'Handy Career Guidance Room'.