SALON

Thursday, Nov 15, 2012 6:15 AM UTC

Survey: New grads can expect modest rise in hiring

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Modest good news for college students: An annual survey predicts employers will increase hiring of new 4-year college graduates about 5 percent in the coming year. Demand for graduates with associate’s degrees is expected to increase more sharply — by about 30 percent compared to last year’s survey— while MBA hiring appears headed for an unexpected decline.

The 42nd annual survey out Thursday from Michigan State University’s College Employment Research Institute collects responses on hiring plans from more than 2,000 U.S. employers. It paints a mixed picture reflecting an improving economy but also uncertainty over whether Congress and the White House will carry the country off the fiscal cliff in January, potentially sending the economy back into recession.

The hiring numbers are certainly better than for students who graduated at the depths of the recession, but overall indicate less aggressive hiring than the last couple of years, which survey director Phil Gardner attributed to the political situation as well as weakness in sectors like defense. The survey was conducted before President Barack Obama won a second term.

“Everybody just stopped making decisions to see how this election was going to be play out,” Gardner said. “A lot of people are sitting on the fence.”

For 4-year college graduates, the report finds employers are looking most actively for business-related majors but demand is also strong for “all majors” — an indication many employers want critical thinking skills that can be developed in many different courses of study. Demand for engineering, accounting and computer science majors appears somewhat softer than in previous years.

As for those with MBAs — master’s level business degrees — Gardner said it appears companies are more willing to fill jobs with bachelor’s-only recipients, who command less salary. That’s unfortunate for a glut of MBA students still coming up through the system.

“The top-school MBA grads aren’t going to have a problem,” Gardner said. “It’s all these kids without a lot of professional experience that aren’t at the top-tier programs that will probably struggle to find work that is an ‘MBA job.’”

Alex Mitchell, a Michigan State journalism student scheduled to graduate in December, said he and his fellow students have long since reconciled themselves to a tough slog getting their first job. A string of internships and other pre-professional experiences in colleges is essential, and some students, he said, will have to settle for internships even after they graduate.

Personally, he’s realized journalism jobs will be hard to land and is looking for work in public relations. He’s optimistic, but with 15 applications out, is still looking for his first interview. He’d hoped to settle in Michigan or next-door Ohio to be near family but realizes he may have to broaden his horizons.

“I may have to reach out across some different states or maybe elsewhere around the country to get that initial position before I get back,” he said. As for the market, “there’s just a lot of people who’ve been out there a little bit longer, out of school longer, and have more experience than myself.”

While higher degrees generally translate into higher earnings, there are wide variations across fields of study and careers, and students have to factor debt into the equation if they need to borrow for tuition. According to Georgetown University researchers, roughly 30 percent of associate’s degree recipients earn more than people with bachelor’s degrees. Those with mere certificates in engineering earn roughly 20 percent more than the average generic bachelor’s degree recipient.

A recent study by The Project on Student Debt found that two-thirds of the college class of 2011 nationally finished school with loan debt, and those who borrowed owed on average $26,600 — up about 5 percent from the class before. Still, most experts insist that while a bachelor’s degree doesn’t necessarily pay off with a first job, it eventually more than does so, in hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional lifetime earnings.

A major part of that is simply staying employed: For those 25 and older, the unemployment rate for those with a college degree is now just 3.8 percent. For those with some college or an associate degree it’s 6.9 percent, and for those with just a high school diploma it’s 8.4 percent.

___

Online: http://www.ceri.msu.edu/

Follow Justin Pope at http://www.twitter.com/JustinPopeAP

More Justin Pope.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations