New Employment Survey Report in the News

Exhibiting an uncanny grasp of the obvious, CNN's Money section, is carrying a story about the difficult job market for 2010 college graduates: Job Outlook: Still Stinks. "Hiring for graduates will remain near its lowest level in decades after 40% plunge last year, new survey says. But hiring will spike 15% at smaller companies."

This is a quick take on a survey conducted by Michigan State University's College Employment Research Institute. The portion of this story that is not news is the ongoing unemployment rate; when this survey came out a year ago national unemployment was 6.8%. Today it's 10.2%. It's by poking around in the data for this report that we can find some interesting facts and perhaps some encouraging ones for people who are pondering a career choice or a career change.

One of the statistical surprises that jumps out of the report is the projection that hiring for students with master's degrees will decline by 11%, "based on a weaker labor market for accounting students." On the other hand the MBA degree is still golden, with a projection for an 11% increase in 2009. For years the accounting profession has enjoyed enormous growth; apparently that growth has reached a plateau. MBA grads can still get in the door for an interview. In any case, by far the largest segment of college graduates looking for work and the largest number hired will hold bachelor's degrees.

"Large companies, those with more than 4,000 employees, plan to decrease hiring of all graduates by 3%, and medium-sized companies, those with between 500 and 4,000 employees, expect to lower hiring by 11%."

Employers with fewer than 500 staff members said they expect hiring at their companies to jump by 15%. These companies will hire 11 new graduates on average in 2010, and 8 of them will be at the bachelor's level."

This isn't the first survey that has suggested the economic recovery will ride on the backs of small businesses and new businesses. What is interesting about this set of interviews is that one third of employers said they would consider graduates regardless of their major. Liberal Arts schools aren't quite dead yet; employers are coming to value the wider perspective of college graduates with a broad education over the technical skills of a graduate with a narrow outlook on the world in general and business in particular.
Psychology degrees for example might have some value in the upcoming job market as both are good choices for careers in human resources management.

Finally, the report tells us that "the most sought-after graduates are those who majored in environmental science and statistics, for whom job opportunities will climb by 6% and 11%, respectively." With regard to statisticians, the report's author stated that they are in demand because they are "quantitatively literate and companies are looking to tap into people that can manipulate and understand numbers." From another perspective, statisticians are financial analysts or supply chain management professionals without business training. There's plenty of math in any business degree.