With youth unemployment hitting scarily high levels and national student loan debt at more than $1 trillion, it might seem like college graduates don’t have much to be thankful for this holiday season. But a new annual survey is predicting good things for the coming year — hiring of four-year college graduates is expected to increase by five percent.
The 42nd annual Recruiting Trends survey, prepared by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University, reports hiring for those with bachelor’s degrees will grow, with the highest demand coming in marketing, human resources, finance and advertising. The next year will hold less promise for accountants, engineers and computer science majors.
Hiring of those with associate degrees is expected to take a surprisingly sharp upward turn, increasing by 30 percent over the next year. The employment situation is predicted to get bleaker for those with advanced degrees, however. Demand for master’s degrees will decrease by six percent, bad news for an already thin advanced degree hiring market.
Out of the 2,864 full-time employers who responded to the study, only 2,057 could provide hiring projections for the next year, citing political and economic uncertainty. The tempered hiring increase for those with bachelor’s degrees might also be a result of the fluid political climate. “We attribute some sluggishness to the number of large organizations taking a wait and see approach until after the elections and Congressional decisions about sequestration,” the study said.
While a five percent increase is not huge, it is certainly a step in the right direction — and very welcome news — for today’s college graduates.
