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Job market brightens for some 2008 grads |
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Thursday, 20 March 2008 |
by JAMISON DORAN
News Editor
Despite a weakening in the economy and in the United States job market overall, the outlook for 2008 college graduates is looking quite bright.
“Businesses are eager to hire new graduates, especially considering that in the next few years more and more people will be reaching retirement age,” said Michelle D. Brown, a career counselor in the Career Development Center.
The number of workers in the 55-year-old and older group is expected to nearly double by the end of
2012, making the hiring of young new graduates really appealing to employers, according to an article
in The Chicago Tribune.
According to the National Association of College Employers, more than half of all employers planned to
include signing bonuses when offering jobs to potential employees and starting salaries are up by as
much as 5 percent, which is double the increase that has been seen the previous two years.
A survey given out by the NACE found employers plan to hire 16 percent more college graduates than
they did a year ago.
 Computer science majors listen as professor James Wilkes explains linking in Computer Systems II. Photo by Adam Dixon
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Jobs that are in highest demand are jobs in the fields of engineering, marketing and computer science.
“Jobs in those fields aren’t going to go away anytime soon,” Brown said.
Thomas M. Van Gilder, director of information technological services, agreed.
“With computers becoming more and more of a staple in our society, we’re going to continue to need
people to program and work on them,” Van Gilder said.
As a group, graduates with a liberal arts degree will make on average $33,258 as their starting salary,
which is a 9 percent increase from last year.
Starting jobs in the field of computer science will average to be a little over $50,000, depending on the
exact degree a student obtains.
“Anything to do with computers can be a lucrative career, as well as a relatively stable one,” Van Gilder
said.
Brown said a good way to get your foot in the door is to do internships, even after you have graduated.
While it is beneficial to participate in an internship while still in school, there isn’t anything that should
stop someone from pursuing one after graduation, Brown said.
“Some students will go ahead and get an internship after graduation which will later turn into a full-time
employment opportunity with the company they interned with,” she said.
Students can obtain help with resumes and finding a job or internship in the Career Development
Center.
“We encourage students to come by the Career Development Center as early as their freshman year to
begin working on resumes, interviewing techniques and to just get the opportunity to ask basic
questions they might have about job and internship opportunities,” Brown said.
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