Intern Hiring Expected to Increase 12% This Summer

Employers expect to hire more college students for summer internships this year, according to a new study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Employers taking part in NACE’s 2012 Internship & Co-op Survey report plans to increase internship hires by 8.5 percent over last year and nearly all expect to pay their interns.

“This reflects the focus of these internship programs,” says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director. “Employers taking part in the survey use their internship programs to feed their full-time hiring efforts; as a result, they pay their interns to ensure the best talent pool possible.”

Overall, responding organizations expect to pay bachelor’s degree-level interns an average of $16.21 per hour. That’s down slightly from the 2011 average of $16.68.

A separate study by NACE found that internship programs are an effective tool for feeding full-time hiring efforts. NACE’s 2011 Student Survey found that nearly 90 percent of students who took part in internships said they would accept an offer of a full-time job from their internship employer.

The same study also found that paid internships correlate to better job-search success for college students. Paid interns were more likely to get a job offer, have a job in hand by the time they graduated, and receive a higher starting salary than their peers who took part in an unpaid internship or no internship at all.