An annual survey of more than 5,000 employers by CollegeGrad.com found that hiring projections for college graduates in entry-level jobs has increased to 56 percent for 2003, up 4 percentage points from last year.
Small- and medium-sized companies accounted for the greatest increases, while most larger employers maintained a hiring freeze.
Brian Krueger, the site’s president and founder, said smaller companies are usually first to hire when coming out of a recession.
The 2002 survey projected entry-level employment for 52 percent of college graduates, the gloomiest prospects found by the survey since it began in 1998.
According to Krueger, demand simply can’t accommodate the almost 2 million students who will graduate this year from four-year colleges and universities in the United States.
The lack of open jobs continues to frustrate Northwestern seniors and their advisers.
“I just have a general feeling that this year activity is quite similar to what happened last year,” said Dianne Siekmann, associate director for employer relations at NU’s University Career Services.
Siekmann estimated that about 90 percent of graduating seniors come to UCS for help in finding jobs.
Apart from the general economic picture, Krueger said employment opportunities depend on what is driving the demand for entry-level workers and how much training employers are willing to provide. Companies prefer hiring unemployed workers with experience rather than training recent graduates. As general unemployment decreases, companies become more willing to train newcomers.
Sally Johnston, human resources manager at Evanston-based consulting firm Z.S. Associates, said the situation is improving slowly.
“The consulting firms are back recruiting on campus — not to the same degree they were two years ago, but they are back,” Johnston said.
Siekmann has seen students who “really came in with a realistic view of how the job market can be.”
“Many of them have done the right things and yet they don’t have an offer yet,” she said. “It just takes a while to find the right opportunity, and I think some of the students are getting a little discouraged.”
Siekmann said an NU diploma still can be an advantage in applying for jobs. Thirty-two of the firm’s 600 employees worldwide are NU alumni.
“I’m an alumna here, and every time that I’ve gone to a different employer, it’s always carried a lot of weight,” she said.
When students have trouble finding the jobs they want, UCS encourages them to consider a broader range of careers and leads them to lesser-known companies that are hiring, Siekmann said.
Siekmann said more students are opting to enroll in graduate schools rather than enter the currently infertile job market.
Brian Wilson, a Weinberg senior, said many graduates will cope by “considering jobs in less-than-ideal fields — basically just getting what they can get instead of being selective.”
“I’m getting a lot of interviews and very few offers,” he said.
