Number of New IT Engineer Hires Increases for 4th Consecutive Year, Though Growth Slows; Non-STEM Graduates Up 2.3x Over 10 Years, Women Reach 30% — Diversification in New Hires, While Graduate School Completers Decline for First Time in 9 Years

Human Resocia Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; President: Tetsuo Takahashi), a comprehensive human resources service company that provides overseas IT engineer dispatch services, has compiled and analyzed the latest data on new graduate employment trends for IT engineers, a sector seeing high demand due to the advancement of DX and the expansion of AI utilization. The survey results reveal that while the number of new graduates from universities and other institutions entering the IT engineering field has increased for the fourth consecutive year, the rate of growth is slowing. Furthermore, while the number of master's and doctoral degree holders—who possess highly specialized knowledge—has begun to decline, there is an upward trend in non-STEM (science and engineering) graduates, indicating a diversification in the composition of new IT engineer hires. As IT technology becomes more sophisticated, it is believed that post-hiring talent development within companies will become increasingly important. 【Key Findings of the Survey】 ● The number of university and other graduates entering the workforce as IT engineers increased by only 0.7% year-on-year. ● The proportion of STEM graduates is declining as more non-STEM majors and women enter the field; graduate school completers have decreased for the first time in 9 years. ● To keep pace with increasingly sophisticated IT technology, there is a growing need to establish robust post-hiring training systems.

・This report aggregates and analyzes data on employment by occupation for graduates of higher education institutions—including graduate schools, universities, junior colleges, colleges of technology, and vocational schools—based on the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's "School Basic Survey." ・For graduates of graduate schools, universities, junior colleges, and colleges of technology, "IT engineer hires" are defined as those employed as "Information Processing/Communication Technicians" within the category of professional and technical occupations. For vocational school graduates, it is defined as those who majored in "Computer Science" or "Information Processing" and were employed in the same field. 1. Background In the IT sector, demand for talent is rising due to the progress of DX and the expansion of AI utilization. As recruitment activities intensify, companies are moving to strengthen their new graduate hiring. Based on these trends, we have compiled and analyzed the latest data on new graduate employment for IT engineers among those graduating in March 2025. 2. Summary of Survey Results ● Number of New IT Engineer Hires Up 0.7% Year-on-Year, but Growth Rate Slows A total of 61,000 students who graduated from higher education institutions (graduate schools, universities, junior colleges, colleges of technology, and vocational schools) in March 2025 were hired as IT engineers. While this is a 0.7% increase from the previous year and marks the fourth consecutive year of growth, the rate of increase is showing signs of slowing. By gender, the number of men increased from 28,000 in 2015 to 44,000 in 2025 (approx. 1.6x), while the number of women increased from 9,000 in 2015 to 17,000 in 2025 (approx. 2.0x), outpacing the growth rate of men. The proportion of women among new hires rose for the first time in four years, reaching 28.0%, meaning women now account for approximately 30% of new hires.