Good and Bad Economic News

The Bad

FedEx just reported an excellent 18 percent increase in revenue over last year, but announced 1,700 job cuts, in spite of expectations of global growth over the coming year, according to reports. They will also close 100 facilities as it consolidates business divisions. The pace of job cut announcements has slowed considerably over last year, according to data released by outplacement firm, Challenger Gray & Christmas. Transportation companies have announced 20,102 job cuts through August, compared to 65,591 in the same period last year.

The Good

Jobless claims fell last week to 450,000, the lowest in two months. This marks the third consecutive decline for the historically volatile employment measure. Meanwhile, Toys R Us announced that it will open 600 temporary “Express” stores in malls and other shopping centers across the country for the holidays. This doubles the retailer’s 2009 holiday store openings and requires hiring 10,000 seasonal workers.

The Confusing

Much has been made of the jobless claims numbers from earlier in September. The short sound bites put out by some media outlets have been mostly incomplete and at times outright deceiving. It amazes me how little some media outlets respect their viewers and apparently believe that they can fool most of their viewers most of the time and some of their viewers all of the time and that the disservice they do to their viewers won’t come back to haunt them. In any case, corporate hiring in July was up and overall hiring was down. What caused that? The massive layoffs of a couple hundred thousand temporary workers hired by the U.S. Census Bureau. Any smart analyst would have discounted both the hiring and termination of these workers as there are so many of them and the jobs aren’t even seasonal like construction jobs can be due to the fact that the census is conducted only once a decade. So the boost the hirings gave during the winter and the slump the terminations gave this past summer shouldn’t be looked at when trying to determine if the job market is improving or weakening.

Best Colleges for Management Information Systems Majors

When top employers are asked to rank the best colleges and universities, they invariably disagree as what is best for one employer may be awful for another. One employer, for example, may need the cream of the cream and is ready, willing, and able to do what it takes to recruit and retain that talent. But the other employer may only think that the cream of the cream is the best candidate for her organization when in fact a solid B student at a second tier school will be far more likely to accept a job offer and stay for years.

Another difference that often crops up on surveys of the top colleges is that one school may have a wonderful liberal arts program but be very average in its other areas while a second school may be solid across the board but not excel in any one program. But when asked to rank the best colleges for management information systems majors, large employers chose:

1. Purdue University
2. Pennsylvania State University
3. Georgia Institute of Technology

Source: Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2010

Best Colleges for Finance Majors

When top employers are asked to rank the best colleges and universities, they invariably disagree as what is best for one employer may be awful for another. One employer, for example, may need the cream of the cream and is ready, willing, and able to do what it takes to recruit and retain that talent. But the other employer may only think that the cream of the cream is the best candidate for her organization when in fact a solid B student at a second tier school will be far more likely to accept a job offer and stay for years.

Another difference that often crops up on surveys of the top colleges is that one school may have a wonderful liberal arts program but be very average in its other areas while a second school may be solid across the board but not excel in any one program. But when asked to rank the best colleges for finance majors, large employers chose:

1. University of Michigan
2. New York University
3. University of California at Berkeley
4. Carnegie Mellon University
5. Texas A&M University

Source: Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2010

Best Colleges for Liberal Arts Majors

When top employers are asked to rank the best colleges and universities, they invariably disagree as what is best for one employer may be awful for another. One employer, for example, may need the cream of the cream and is ready, willing, and able to do what it takes to recruit and retain that talent. But the other employer may only think that the cream of the cream is the best candidate for her organization when in fact a solid B student at a second tier school will be far more likely to accept a job offer and stay for years.

Another difference that often crops up on surveys of the top colleges is that one school may have a wonderful liberal arts program but be very average in its other areas while a second school may be solid across the board but not excel in any one program. But when asked to rank the best colleges for liberal arts majors, large employers chose:

1. Georgetown University
2. Duke University
3. New York University

Source: Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2010

Best Colleges for Computer Science / I.T. Majors

When top employers are asked to rank the best colleges and universities, they invariably disagree as what is best for one employer may be awful for another. One employer, for example, may need the cream of the cream and is ready, willing, and able to do what it takes to recruit and retain that talent. But the other employer may only think that the cream of the cream is the best candidate for her organization when in fact a solid B student at a second tier school will be far more likely to accept a job offer and stay for years.

Another difference that often crops up on surveys of the top colleges is that one school may have a wonderful liberal arts program but be very average in its other areas while a second school may be solid across the board but not excel in any one program. But when asked to rank the best colleges for computer science majors, large employers chose:

1. Carnegie Mellon University
2. University of California at Berkeley
3. University of Michigan
4. Georgia Institute of Technology
5. Virginia Polytechnic Institute

Source: Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2010

Best Colleges for Business / Economics Majors

When top employers are asked to rank the best colleges and universities, they invariably disagree as what is best for one employer may be awful for another. One employer, for example, may need the cream of the cream and is ready, willing, and able to do what it takes to recruit and retain that talent. But the other employer may only think that the cream of the cream is the best candidate for her organization when in fact a solid B student at a second tier school will be far more likely to accept a job offer and stay for years.

Another difference that often crops up on surveys of the top colleges is that one school may have a wonderful liberal arts program but be very average in its other areas while a second school may be solid across the board but not excel in any one program. But when asked to rank the best colleges for business and economics majors, large employers chose:

1. University of Michigan
2. Ohio State University
3. Rutgers University
4. Harvard University
5. University of Pennsylvania

Source: Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2010

Best Colleges for Marketing / Advertising

When top employers are asked to rank the best colleges and universities, they invariably disagree as what is best for one employer may be awful for another. One employer, for example, may need the cream of the cream and is ready, willing, and able to do what it takes to recruit and retain that talent. But the other employer may only think that the cream of the cream is the best candidate for her organization when in fact a solid B student at a second tier school will be far more likely to accept a job offer and stay for years.

Another difference that often crops up on surveys of the top colleges is that one school may have a wonderful liberal arts program but be very average in its other areas while a second school may be solid across the board but not excel in any one program. But when asked to rank the best colleges for marketing and advertising majors, large employers chose:

1. Northwestern University
2. Duke University
3. University of California at Berkeley
4. University of Minnesota
5. University of Wisconsin

Source: Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2010

Best Colleges for Engineering Majors

When top employers are asked to rank the best colleges and universities, they invariably disagree as what is best for one employer may be awful for another. One employer, for example, may need the cream of the cream and is ready, willing, and able to do what it takes to recruit and retain that talent. But the other employer may only think that the cream of the cream is the best candidate for her organization when in fact a solid B student at a second tier school will be far more likely to accept a job offer and stay for years.

Another difference that often crops up on surveys of the top colleges is that one school may have a wonderful liberal arts program but be very average in its other areas while a second school may be solid across the board but not excel in any one program. But when asked to rank the best colleges for engineering majors, large employers chose:

1. Georgia Institute of Technology
2. Purdue University
3. University of Maryland
4. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
5. Virginia Polytechnic Institute

Source: Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2010

Best Colleges for Accounting Majors

When top employers are asked to rank the best colleges and universities, they invariably disagree as what is best for one employer may be awful for another. One employer, for example, may need the cream of the cream and is ready, willing, and able to do what it takes to recruit and retain that talent. But the other employer may only think that the cream of the cream is the best candidate for her organization when in fact a solid B student at a second tier school will be far more likely to accept a job offer and stay for years.

Another difference that often crops up on surveys of the top colleges is that one school may have a wonderful liberal arts program but be very average in its other areas while a second school may be solid across the board but not excel in any one program. But when asked to rank the best colleges for accounting majors, large employers chose:

1. Brigham Young University
2. University of Wisconsin
3. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
4. University of Minnesota
5. Pennsylvania State University

Source: Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2010

Top 25 Colleges to Attend If You Want a Job Upon Graduation

Today’s Wall Street Journal includes a great story written by Teri Evans about the surprising allure of state colleges and universities to recruiters at big employers. In short, writes Teri, the recruiters like the one-stop-shopping for recent grads with solid academics, job skills, and a proven track record of success.

The Wall Street Journal partnered with Payscale.com and Cambria Consulting to survey recruiters who work for some of the largest organizations in the country. These organizations recruited 43,000 grads last year, which sounds like a lot but is in fact only 0.2 percent of the 2.2 million graduates of associates programs (700,000) and bachelors programs (1.5 million). Nevertheless, it is these big employers that many and perhaps most students strive to work for so focusing on the schools which they like most is quite helpful.

It is helpful when reviewing these rankings that each and every one of these schools is a tremendous school, especially when you consider that there are over 4,000 two-year and four-year colleges in the U.S. Yet some of the top schools are clearly more attractive to recruiters than others. Ranked from the best of the best to the worst of the best are:

1. Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) – State College, PA
2. Texas A&M University – College Station, TX
3. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – Urbana, IL
4. Purdue University – West Lafayette, IN
5. Arizona State University – Tempe, AZ
6. University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, MI
7. Georgia Institute of Technology – Atlanta, GA
8. University of Maryland – College Park, MD
9. University of Florida – Gainsville, FL
10. Carnegie Mellon University – Pittsburgh, PA
11. Brigham Young University – Provo, UT
12. Ohio State University – Columbus, OH
13. Virginia Polytechnic Institute – Blacksburg, VA
14. Cornell University – Ithica, NY
15. University of Califoria – Berkeley, CA
16. University of Wisconsin – Madison, WI
17. University of California – Los Angeles, CA
18. Texas Tech University – Lubbock, TX
19. North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC
20. University of Virginia – Charlottesville, VA
21. Rutgers University – New Brunswick, NJ
22. University of Notre Dame – South Bend, IN
23. Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Cambridge, MA
24. University of Southern California – Los Angeles, CA
25. Washington State University – Pullman, WA
26. University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, NC