Excerpts from MarketWatch 11/19/2024 by Hannah Lang
Class of 2025 college graduates could see more job openings — especially in these fields
After two years of declines, employers are planning to hire more new grads this spring than they did last year. Here’s why employers are ‘cautiously optimistic.’
There’s good news for college seniors: It might be easier for new graduates to land their first job this spring than it was in previous years.
Employers plan to hire 7.3% more new graduates from the class of 2025 than they did from the class of 2024, according to a job-outlook survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
It’s the first time in two years that employers expect to increase their hiring of entry-level workers, after a post-COVID labor-market slowdown dampened younger workers’ job prospects.
“We know that there was likely a decrease in hiring of college graduates in 2024, so having somewhat of a bounce back is really good news,” Shawn VanDerziel, the president and chief executive of NACE, told MarketWatch. “Employers are cautiously optimistic.”
Companies are planning to hire entry-level workers despite having a dampened outlook on the job market overall: Nearly 40% of the employers surveyed by NACE categorized the current market as “fair” or “poor,” a higher proportion than last fall. Only about 14% deemed it “very good” or “excellent.”
The job outlook does vary by industry: While companies in sectors like wholesale trade, information and finance, insurance and real estate plan to significantly rev up hiring in 2025, others are planning to bring on fewer new employees.
For example, electronics manufacturers, accounting companies and management consulting firms all reported plans to hire fewer new employees than they did a year earlier.
A longer job search
There’s still one small catch: Research by NACE has found that it takes a little more effort to land that first offer than it did a couple of years ago, at the height of a hiring frenzy.
“What we’re finding is that the number of applications you need to submit are increasing, and the amount of time that companies are taking to fill positions is a little bit longer,” VanDerziel said.
Though other parts of the economy are still adding jobs, hiring for white-collar roles has slowed significantly over the past few years.
Companies overall aren’t making tons of job cuts, and the unemployment rate has stayed low. But it’s a lot more challenging to land an office job than it was in 2022, when even young workers could pick from multiple offers and easily win big pay increases by job-hopping.
VanDerziel’s advice for the class of 2025: Be prepared for a slightly longer job search than you might expect.
“It’s just going to take more patience,” he said.