Job Outlook for College Graduates Not Encouraging
Up-and-coming college graduates may soon face one of the toughest job markets in years as they encounter employers who are scaling back hiring and a job market flooded with hundreds of thousands of recently unemployed workforce veterans.
Just last month, the U.S. Department of Labor reported a 6.5 percent unemployment rate, the highest rate seen in 14 years. And a recent annual employment report revealed that corporations plan to scale back hiring graduates of all degree levels by 8 percent over last year (“Economy Chills Hiring Prospects for College Graduates, Report Says,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 18, 2008).
The “2008-2009 Recruiting Trends” report, conducted by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University, paints a very grim job outlook for college graduates, a dramatic change from only a few years ago.
“In two short years,” the report states, “we have moved from a zenith of exuberant and aggressive college hiring, through a period of cautious optimism, to a place of quiet desperation.”
In the CERI survey, hiring projections varied by company size, industry, and location. Of the 945 employers who responded to the survey, 49 percent said they expected to decrease their total hiring this year, while 29 percent said they would increase hiring, and 20 percent planned to hire at the same levels as last year.
The smallest employers — organizations with fewer than 54 employees — said they would increase hiring for bachelor’s degree graduates but by only one percent. The largest organizations, those with more than 3,700 employees, said they were planning to decrease hiring by about 9 percent.
With Limited Prospects, Students Should Start Job Searching Now
Defense and government organizations may be the hardest hit among larger employers, with expected 15-percent declines in hiring, while nonprofit organizations anticipate no change in hiring from the previous year.
The best job prospects for graduates are in the fields of technology and science, where oil and gas industry employers plan to hire 8 percent more bachelors degree graduates, and in the fields of medical manufacturing and healthcare, where employers say they will offer positions to 10 percent more associate degree graduates.
Many employers dealing with economic uncertainty are looking to hire new graduates as soon as possible, perhaps before things get worse, said Philip Gardner, director of CERI. Gardner advises students to start work on lining up a job at their first opportunity.
“It’s going to get worse,” he said. “Spring is going to be very, very difficult for students to find work.”