Job Market Favors College Grads This Year
Grads Who Dismiss Retail May Miss Out On Opportunities
Communication and Teamwork are Key for Future Chemists
Job Market Looks Promising for New Grads - Though Katrina's Effects Lurk
Job Market Favors College Grads This Year
Sources: The Economist, August, 20, 2005 and Campus Career Counselor, September 2005
The pendulum swings once again. After several years of tough times for college students and recent grads - particularly in 2002 & 2003 - things began improving during the 2004-2005 school year.
Look for that trend to continue during 2005-2006, according to a recent article in The Economist. "Come September," the article begins, "the campuses of America will be swarming not just with returning undergraduates, but also with employers set on signing up the most able 10% of them."
"We're seeing a far more competitive market for talent," notes General Electric recruitment manager Steve Canale in The Economist piece. Specifically, students who a year ago may have received two or three job offers can reasonably expect four or five this year, the article notes.
That's particularly true for students who complete one or more internships - since today's companies are often looking to hire their interns for full-time, permanent positions after the students finish college. Indeed, says Canale, some 60 percent of GE's new-grad hires this year will come directly from its own group of more than 2000 interns.
As the new playing field unfolds, students' expectations are rising, often in tandem with their opinions of a particular organization's products and services. To wit: Each year, employer branding firm Universum asks about 30,000 American college students to name their ideal employer. This year, Apple Computer rose from 41st on the list to 13th - thanks in part to its iPod product, experts presume - while the Federal Bureau of Investigation soared from 138th to 10th - thanks in part to its generally positive portrayal in recent movies and TV programs, experts surmise.
Grads Who Dismiss Retail May Miss Out on Opportunities
Sources: Kiplinger's, August 2005, and Campus Career Counselor, September 2005
Next time you hear a student grunt, "Well, I guess there's always retail" - as though it's a fate worse than unemployment - let him/her know that the field these days has a lot more to offer than most students think.
"Not only is demand high for grads seeking management positions, but opportunities to advance are plentiful and promotions can come quickly," stresses a recent article in Kiplinger's. "Benefits are solid and the pay is much improved. Depending on the location, salaries for new hires range from $35,000 to $45,000, and more if you're willing to move around."
Among the companies that are most a ggressive today in their efforts to recruit and hire new college graduates: chain stores like Best Buy, Target, and Walgreens. And the demand for student go-getters isn't likely to wane anytime soon, says Melinda Burke, director of the Lundgren Center for Retailing at the University of Arizona. Lundgren says the center graduates about 100 students a year - but that "we could graduate four times that and still not meed the demand."
Communication and Teamwork are Key for Future Chemists
Sources: The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 31, 2005 , and Campus Career Counselor, September 2005
Attention all college students who are (or will be) planning a career somewhere in the field of chemistry: Your communication and teamwork skills are going to be just as critical to your success as are your lab skills and your ability to understand complex chemical concepts.
That was just one of the key conclusions recently at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C. In the years ahead, more than ever before, chemistry students "will need to learn to communicate with people from diverse backgroundes and work in multidisciplinary teams."
Job Market Looks Promising for New Grads - Though Katrina's Effects Lurk
Sources: National Association of Colleges and Employers news releases, September 7, 2005, and September 14, 2005; Campus Career Counselor, September 2005
Employers plan to hire almost 15 percent more new college graduates this academic year than last - although it's unclear whether those expectations will remain intact given the recent events surrounding Hurricane Katrina - according to recent research by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
NACE's Job Outlook 2006 Fall Preview Survey found that emplo9yers intend to hire 14.5 percent more new grads in 2005-2006 than they did in 2004-2005. "We have seen positive movement in the job market for new college graduates over the past few years, and this report reinforces that college hiring is moving in the right direction," NACE Executive Director Marilyn Mackes notes in a news release.
Indeed...this year's forecasted rise in college hiring marks "the third consecutive year in which employers have projected hiring increases." But the news release also highlights a key caution that career services professionals must take into account: the survey was conducted before Katrina and "the effects of the hurricane and its aftermath on college hiring are not known at this time."
Bright All Around: More than 250 employers from across the US particpated in the Job Outlook 2006 Fall Preview Survey which also revealed that students and grads pursuing service-sector careers are likely to have the best job prospects this year. Specifically, employers in this group plan to hire 21.6 percent more new grads this academic year than last.
But several other sectors are showing promise as well. Among them: manufacturing (with a projected hiring increase of 8.2 percent) and government (with a projected hiring increase of 3.2 percent). Interestingly, most of the projected numbers are looking good by geographic region as well (though, again, Katrina's effects at this point are unclear).
Leading the way will be the Northeast, where employers say they'll be hiring 26 percent more new grads this year. Employers in the South plan to hire 18 percent more, employers in the West 16 percent more and employers in the Midwest 9.1 percent more.
Salaries Rising Too: Starting salaries for new college graduates are also continuing to climb, according to a separate NACE study - the Fall 2005 Salary Survey, which highlights the final starting salary numbers for the Class of 2005.
"Overall, starting salary offers rose consistently over this past academic year, with the majority of disciplines reporting higher increases this year than they did last year," Mackes notes in a news release on the study's findings.
The increases are fairly consistent across academic disciplines.
For example, while business majors like management information systems (+5
percent), marketing (+4.9 percent), and accounting (+4.6 percent) all saw
s imilar growth in starting salaries, liberal arts majors like psycology
(+6.5 percent) and sociology (+7.5 percent) saw basically the same types
of increases - although in most cases the raw numbers for business majors
continue to be higher.
-Peter Vogt
About this Site | Copyright Notice |
