Job Market Turns Around for College Hires

Posted by: Alison Damast on September 3, 2010

There have been some indications in recent months that the job market for college graduates was loosening up. Even business majors have gotten a bit of good news in recent months, with accounting and finance students receiving more and better job offers compared to last year.

But now there’s more conclusive evidence, according to the results of a new employer survey released today by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Employers are projecting that they will hire 13.5 percent more graduates from the class of 2011 than they did for the class of 2010, according to the NACE fall preview survey.

The hiring picture started brightening this past spring, when employers indicated they planned to hire 5.3 percent more college graduates in 2010 than in 2009, according to NACE’s 2010 spring job outlook survey.

The results of NACE’s latest fall survey are even more encouraging, but it does not mean that the market has made a full comeback, said NACE Executive Director Marilyn Mackes, in a statement.

“This is positive news, but it is important to understand the data in context,” she said. “While the overall hiring projection is positive, less than half of those surveyed anticipate an actual increase in hiring.”

According to NACE’s fall survey, just under 48 percent of employers indicated that they plan to hire more students next year. Approximately 12 percent anticipate cutting college hiring further and 40 percent plan to keep hiring at the same level as last year, the survey said.

Readers and recent college graduates, how is your job search coming along? Are you finding that the job market is starting to get better?