Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology says six percent of Japanese people who graduated college in March are currently unemployed and not seeking further education.

Citing its survey of 86-thousand people just out of college, the ministry said that 53-thousand are trying to find jobs or preparing to study further. It said the remaining 33-thousand are NEETs, a government acronym used to describe people not in education, employment, or training.

Until now, a majority of 600-thousand people who are not in employment or education have been assumed to be high school graduates or dropouts. Japanese media report that Japan is shocked over the large number of college graduates falling into the category.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that devising measures to tackle the issue of people designated as NEETs is urgent, explaining that a rise in the idle population degrades the quality of labor, boosts the number of government subsidy recipients, and brings down the birthrate.