Studies: Graduates’ job outlook nicer

LITTLE ROCK — Good news for the class of 2012: Reports show a friendlier job market than the one college graduates faced a few years ago.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers reported in its 2012 Job Outlook Spring Update that employers expect to hire 10.2 percent more from the class of 2012 than they did from the class of 2011.

And a study by Millennial Branding, a research company, surveyed 225 employers and found that 87 percent of employers plan to hire more graduates this year.

“We’re certainly seeing a better job market this year than we were last year,” said Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. “That is good news, but it definitely doesn’t mean all is well.”

Experts in Arkansas have said the market is competitive and jobs are scarce across the state and the country.

“It’s an employer’s market,” said Kimberly Friedman, spokesman for the Arkansas Workforce Services. “That’s one thing college graduates are having to face, that there is a lot of competition for jobs nowadays. Maybe seven [to] 10 years ago, an employer would get 10, 15 at the most, applications for a specific job. It’s not uncommon nowadays for an employer to get 200 applications for a job,” she said, adding that there are more graduates than ever battling for a limited number of jobs.

The unemployment rate for Arkansas is 7.2 percent as of April, compared to an 8.1 percent national rate.

Friedman said many graduates are accepting jobs they are overqualified for “in order to find something better down the road.”

For instance, there are 1,739 annual openings across Arkansas for the position of a cashier. In comparison, the high-skilled job in most demand is registered nurse, with 688 annual openings.

Sara Krimm, a May graduate of Arkansas State University who majored in journalism, said she isn’t above taking a job she feels overqualified for, if her dream job at a newspaper or magazine doesn’t work out.

“I’d have to go into survival mode,” she said, describing the mentality as, “I don’t want to do this forever, but I’ll do this for a while.”

Mike Kirk, director of career services for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said his daughter opened a chiropractic practice in Little Rock and hired a college graduate as her receptionist.

“Here’s someone with a bachelor’s degree who’s having to take a job that really a high school diploma would have been sufficient for,” he said, adding that he’s seen some young adults return to graduate school to “delay the loans and increase opportunities” by getting a more practical degree.

And Deck said people enroll in graduate school hoping to differentiate themselves from the increasingly common bachelor’s degree.

“We have seen graduate enrollment be affected by the job market because if you don’t get the perfect job right off the bat, and you don’t want to sit around stagnating, it’s a way to keep your skills sharp,” she said, adding that recession-era graduates who weren’t able to find jobs are hurt when the economy picks back up.

“Graduates this year really have a little bit of an advantage over the folks who have been out for a couple of years, because they don’t have to explain why they didn’t get a job the first time around,” she said.

College graduates have a six-month grace period after graduation before they have to start paying off their student loans. But with total U.S. student loan debt surpassing $1 trillion and exceeding credit card debt, the system has fallen under scrutiny in Washington.

“I truly believe in the value of higher education and what it will do for you, and the opportunities it will provide, but you also have to weigh that with the amount of debt you’re going to take on,” Kirk said.

According to the 2012 Job Outlook Update survey, the top majors in demand in 2011 were business, engineering and computer sciences. Established in 1956, the National Association of Colleges and Employers says it is the leading source of information on the employment of the college educated.

And Kirk said the areas in Arkansas where he traditionally sees the most demand are in business, engineering and education. Friedman said science and math teachers are in demand across the state.

“Arkansas’ economy seems to have held together pretty well and for those particular areas, our graduates tend to find employment,” Kirk said, adding that those with liberal arts degrees typically have to look longer for jobs.

But the study by Millennial Branding found that 30 percent of employers are recruiting liberal arts majors — only slightly behind the 34 percent of companies recruiting engineering and computer information science majors.

Boston-based Millennial Branding says on its website that it “helps companies understand the emerging [generation Y] employee and consumer.”

Kirk said he hoped the gap in employment opportunities between liberal arts majors and those with a more practical degree is shrinking.

“The liberal arts education gives you so much; it gives you such a strong foundation,” he said. “But the bottom line is if you’re trying to come out and have a really good-paying job now, it’s not nearly as popular and perceived as being as useful to you as some of these other specific career-related degrees.”

For the lucky graduates who find employment, salary is another issue of concern.

A study by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University showed recession-era college graduates earning about $3,000 less on average than pre-recession graduates.

But according to the study, students who completed an internship in college earned almost 15 percent more on average than those who didn’t.

“We encourage them to do at least one [internship], but employers want them to have at least two,” said Tiffany Johnson, assistant director of career services for the University of Central Arkansas.

The study by Millennial Branding showed that 91 percent of employers expect students to have between one or two internships before graduation.

Angela Williams, director of career services at UA Fayetteville, said in an e-mail that some national surveys do indicate a positive job market for the class of 2012.

“If students are prepared for their job search, we expect them to be successful in finding a position that meets their career goals,” she sad, citing well-developed resumes, interview skills and work experience as necessary for a quick and successful job search.

But it is almost impossible to accurately track how many college graduates receive jobs, due to a lack of response from graduating seniors, Kirk said.

Krimm, who will marry in June and move to Waco, Texas, to start her job search, said there was a sense of uncertainty on campus in the months leading up to graduation.

She and her roommates “spent a lot of nights on our couch job-searching together, all over the place,” she said. “It’s kind of exciting because all of a sudden, you’re with a degree and qualified for things you’ve never been qualified for before. On the other hand, there’s an equal amount of fear and anxiety.”