Job Market Surprising Strong for Class of 2008
ningcontentDespite the generally negative economy and decline in overall employment in the United States during the first quarter of 2008, job-seeking seniors found a relatively robust job market, according to results of NACE’s 2008 Graduating Student Survey.
The survey, which was conducted February – April 2008, found:
- More than three-quarters of those who applied for a job (77 percent) had at least one job interview.
- More than half who applied for a job (52 percent) received at least one job offer.
- Nearly half of those who were offered jobs (49 percent) accepted them by the time they participated in the survey.
Interestingly, gender and job location preference played major roles in determining whether a student accepted an offer. Women were less likely than men to accept an offer (47 percent of females accepted offers versus 53 percent of men), as were those who ranked the job’s location as extremely important.
The findings from NACE are consistent with what we at CollegeRecruiter.com have been hearing from the candidates using our site and our employer clients. There are many firms who are no longer hiring and some which are laying off but for every one of those there seems to be another organization that has started or increased their hiring of college students and recent graduates. The result is a flat job market as compared to 2007. Not up and not down but flat.
Fewer grads are reporting receiving multiple offers but they’re also telling us that they’re more inclined to accept the first offer they receive quickly so fewer grads are in a position to receive multiple offers. If the economy were stronger, they’d likely be more confident about holding out for the best match and therefore more likely to receive multiple offers.
At the end of the day, there seems to be equilibrium. There seems to be about the right number and quality of positions available for the students and grads who are properly seeking them. Note the use of the word “properly.” When I hear from students who are really discouraged in their job hunt, I almost always learn that they are doing little to no networking and what networking they may be doing isn’t really networking at all. They’re hiding behind their computers and applying to advertised jobs day after day. When they do, ahem, network it is only to ask others to help them find a job. That isn’t networking. Networking is about asking what you can do for others knowing that at some point some of them will do the same for you. But don’t start off asking them to do you a favor.
