The job prospects for college graduates are improving.
A new Michigan State University study predicts a 16% increase in hiring of college students graduating during the 2014-15 academic year. For the past few years, the MSU study only predicted about a 2% to 4% growth rate in college graduate hiring.
“We’re getting back to where we were in 2008 before everything turned down,” says Phil Gardner, the director of MSU’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute.
Gardner says the Institute surveyed 5,700 employers nationwide. The study shows employers are filling jobs left open since the recession. Gardner says they're also replacing workers who left recently to take better jobs.
“They’ve kept down hiring, now they simply have to hire,” says Gardner.
Gardner says demand is up, not only for information technology and business graduates, but also for communications and advertising majors.
"Employers are recruiting new college graduates at levels not seen since the dot-com frenzy of 1999-2000,” said Gardner. “Competition for qualified candidates is escalating to a degree rarely seen in the past 10 years.”
Earlier this month, the U.S. Labor Department reported that job openings were at a 13-year high.
