By Steven Rothberg

More college and university students and recent graduates who are actively seeking work expect to find it quickly, according to the results of a May 5, 2004 poll released by CollegeRecruiter.com, an online job listing service for students and recent graduates with zero to three years of experience.

"While we suspected that many job seekers were having much more success than those who were searching a year ago, these numbers are confirmation that the job market is improving for most, but not yet for all. We were disappointed to see the slight increase in the number of job seekers who expect it will take them six or more months to find a new job, yet gratified to see that many are optimistic about finding a new job within three months," said Steven Rothberg, President and Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com. "While we have felt the labor market as a whole has been improving since May 2003, that feeling now seems to be shared by many of the students and recent graduates who use our site to help them find new jobs."

The poll by CollegeRecruiter.com was consistent with the results of a survey in which employers said they plan to hire 11.2 percent more new college graduates from the Class of 2004 than they hired from the Class of 2003. According to the survey published by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), "the Class of 2004 is...graduating into a more positive job market than classes from the past few years." Overall, 51.5 percent of employers responding to NACE's Job Outlook 2004 Spring Update survey expect to hire more new college graduates in 2003-04 than they hired in 2002-03.

The NACE survey indicates that the hiring outlook is best among service-sector employers. They expect their hiring to be up 16.1 percent over 2002-03. Manufacturers are generally also optimistic about their hiring plans. They predict an overall increase of 12.6 percent in their college hiring. Despite significant hiring in some governmental units, government and nonprofit employers as a group expect a 4.5 percent decrease in hiring. That decline, however, is an improvement over 2002-03, when they projected a 7 percent decrease.

Regionally, the news is all good as well. Employers in the Northeast expect to increase their college hiring by 20.9 percent. Southern employers expect to increase their college hiring by 10.5 percent. Western employers expect to increase their college hiring by 8.3 percent. Midwestern employers expect to increase their college hiring by 2.7 percent.