Job opportunities should be plentiful for the college Class of 2017, which is good news for graduates. However, two recent surveys suggest employers face stiff competition when recruiting these candidates.
According to a survey from CareerBuilder, 67 percent of employers plan to hire recent college graduates this year, up from 65 percent last year and the most since 2007.
Pay Matters
Companies also intend to show these candidates the money in order to attract them.
More than one-third (37 percent) plan to offer grads higher salaries than last year, and 27 percent of employers hiring grads this year say they will pay a starting salary of $50,000 or more.
Meanwhile, 53 percent expect no change in salary offers, and 11 percent expect a decrease in starting salaries.
Starting salaries for recent graduates break down as follows, according to CareerBuilder:
- Under $30,000: 25 percent
- $30,000 to less than $40,000: 28 percent
- $40,000 to less than $50,000: 20 percent
- $50,000 and higher: 27 percent
In releasing salary data, CareerBuilder points out that it is subject to change.
It is worth noting that these numbers are fluid for a variety of reasons, including that 67 percent of employers say they are willing to negotiate salary offers when extending a job offer to a recent college graduate.
College Majors in Demand
CareerBuilder finds that demand for students with business and technical majors continues to be high among employers.
According to the survey, the following majors are the most in-demand at companies that are hiring:
- Business—35 percent
- Computer and Information Sciences—23 percent
- Engineering—18 percent
- Math and Statistics—15 percent
- Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences—14 percent
- Communications Technologies—11 percent
- Engineering Technologies—11 percent
- Communication and Journalism—8 percent
- Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities—7 percent
- Science Technologies—7 percent
- Social Sciences—6 percent
- Biological and Biomedical Sciences—6 percent
- Architecture and Planning—6 percent
- Education—5 percent
Popular Positions
When it comes to job categories, information technology (27 percent) and customer service jobs (26 percent) top the CareerBuilder list of position types for which employers hiring recent college grads are recruiting.
Finance/accounting (19 percent), business development (19 percent), and sales (17 percent) are also popular position categories.
NACE Findings
Research from the National Association of Colleges and Employer (NACE) likewise points to increased hiring of college graduates.
Employers expect to hire 5 percent more new college graduates from the Class of 2017 than they hired from the Class of 2016, according to NACE.
But that number doesn’t tell the whole story. NACE includes international hiring in its analysis, and employers expect to decrease the hiring of international students—by a lot.
Among respondents sharing their international student hiring plans with NACE, nearly 46 percent are decreasing their international student hires within the United States and only 24.2 percent are increasing these hires.
Be that as it may, employers have open positions to fill, and recruiters can expect a busy, and competitive, hiring season.