More than three dozen of the world’s largest companies–including Wal-Mart, ConAgra and Unilever–were actively recruiting from among the hundreds of students who strolled among the booths last week at the national exposition for the Students in Free Enterprise, a nonprofit organization that encourages student-run entrepreneurial projects.
Some, like Wal-Mart, were hiring students on the spot. The world’s largest retailer has to add 800,000 people during the next few years. Others brought over top executives to help convince some of the most desirable students to come to their company. Enterprise Rent-a-Car was recruiting to help fill about 6,000 entry-level positions in its management-training program, while ConAgra’s recruiter hoped to fill about 250 spots.
“Real good talent always has options and opportunities,” says Cole Peterson, executive vice president of Wal-Mart’s People Division–even in difficult economic times.
And times are definitely tough for new graduates entering the market. Last month, the nation’s jobless rate jumped to 6 percent, an eight-year high, according to the Labor Department. About 1.4 million people between the ages of 20 and 24 are unemployed, the highest number in a decade.
Worse, more than 40 percent of the top employers in the country said they plan to decrease the number of college graduates they hire this year, compared to last–and last year’s hiring levels were already down sharply from previous years. About one-in-five companies said they will keep hiring levels the same as last year. Only about one-third of major companies said they would have additional jobs for new graduates this year, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a nonprofit group that tracks college-graduate recruiting.
There is a silver lining, according to CollegeGrad.com, an entry-level job site. Most of the small- and mid-sized employers it surveyed this spring say they plan to increase their hiring slightly.
Still, it’s not surprising that in a Monster.com survey, fewer than half of this year’s college seniors anticipate having a job offer before graduation. That’s a big drop from just two years ago, when more than three quarters of the graduating class expected to have job offers before they left school. “Part of it is an attitude adjustment,” says Amanda Nell, director of employer relations at the University of Missouri career center. “Things like signing bonuses are clearly nonexistent in this market, and this year’s class might not be able to be quite as picky as those who graduated two years ago.”
But Nell and other career counselors are confident that their students will get an offer soon–even if it’s not a dream job. They urge students to be persistent and to make contacts with companies, even those not hiring at the moment, to network at job fairs and conferences, and even to cold call companies they are interested in. “If they are smart, they are getting involved. They know they need to be more proactive in their search this year,” says Nell. “It’s not entirely doom and gloom out there.”
Where are the jobs? Top entry-level potential employers range from Enterprise to Disney and GEICO Direct–all of which plan to make at least 6,000 new hires, according to a survey by CollegeGrad.com. Boeing and Schlumberger, an energy-services firm, says they will hire 3,000 graduates apiece. And the federal government is offering plenty of opportunities to new graduates as well: the Social Security Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection each expect to fill more than 2,000 spots, the U.S. Department of Labor has 1000 entry-level positions, and the Internal Revenue Service has 800. Those who want to serve their country–or their communities–have plenty of jobs to pick from as well, from the Peace Corps (4,800 spots) to the U.S. Navy (3,000 openings) to the Teach for America program (2,000 spots).
Some jobs only recently became available, as companies reassessed their employment needs. Brian Krueger, CollegeGrad.com president and author of College Grad Job Hunter, says there’s been a 15-percent increase in the number of entry-level jobs being posted on his site in just the past two months. Many employers who cut hundreds or thousands of jobs when the economy slowed over the last few years have just begun hiring again.
That was the case at top-ranked Duke University this year. Sheila Curran, executive director of Duke’s career center, says there were 17 percent more recruiters on campus this year than last. “We’ve been finding that companies who overhired in the past and really cut back last year are coming back in greater numbers,” she says. Morgan Stanley, for example, hired more Duke graduates this year than it has in the past three years.
Consulting groups and public-accounting firms overall say they plan to hire about 14 percent more graduates this year than last, while service-sector employers expect to hire 4.8 percent more, and construction companies plan to boost hiring of college graduates by more than one third, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
On the Monster.com job board, the restaurant and food service, customer service, and retail/wholesale sectors, in particular, are hiring a substantial number of new graduates. About one-quarter of the entry-level postings are in sales, 10 percent are in health care, while administrative and support service positions account for about 8 percent.
Walgreens, the country’s fastest-growing retailer, needs to fill 5,000 entry-level positions–namely assistant manager slots at its new stores, which are sprouting up around the country. John Gremer, manager of management recruitment for Walgreens, says he has plenty of qualified candidates to choose from this year. Atrim, Enterprise’s corporate human resources manager says that her company still has spots and will continue to hire throughout the year. “There are still a lot of great opportunities out there. This is the year to really keep your eyes and options open,” she adds.
The job hunt was tough last year as well–Molly Boyd remembers how relieved she was when she got a job as a retail sales representative for Coors Brewing Company after graduating last year from Drury University. “But a lot of people are hunting for jobs even harder this year and their spirits are a little worn,” says Boyd, who is helping to recruit 20 to 30 new college graduates for Coors. Her advice for new grads: “Know how to market yourself. And relax–you will get a job. It will happen.”
Take it from Katie Gardner, who graduates Saturday from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts with a job offer in hand. She figures she sent out five to 10 resumes every day from last October through the end of April. Finally, on May 1, the day after classes ended, her efforts paid off. She will be starting a new job in pharmaceutical marketing with QED Communications at the end of the month. “It may be partially luck,” she said. “But a lot of it was just persistence.”
