You are viewing
Volume 41, Issue 10
February 17, 2004
To return to the current issue please click
here.
|
 |
February 17, 2004
Employers plan to hire more graduates
Thuba Nguyen
U-Wire
 TUCSON - The job outlook for students graduating in May is promising
as employers of all vocations plan to hire 12.7 percent more college
graduates this
year than last year.
Despite a slow economic recovery, a survey done by the National Association
of Colleges and Employers’ Job Outlook stated that it projects
about 19,000 hires this year compared to about 17,000 actual hires last
year.
“
We’re seeing a lot of activity in engineering, business finance
and definitely accounting,” said Bill Ruggirello, U of A’s
Career Services assistant director for employer relations.
Officials at Career Services have seen an increase in the number of employers
scheduling interviews with graduating students. Honeywell, Lockheed Martin,
Progressive Insurance and Sherwin Williams have come to the U of A campus
to recruit.
The job outlook in the retail sector also appears to be positive. Melinda
Burke, director of Southwest Retail Center for Education and Research,
said there has been an increase in the number of offers made to Uof A
students in the recruiting field.
Companies like Macy’s and Mervyn’s are offering management
positions to graduating seniors.
“
The positions they’re hiring are about $32,000 for management trainee
and executive development positions,” Burke said.
Burke said companies that put their recruitment on hold in previous years
have returned, and they are hiring.
Although the NACE survey indicates that there will be more jobs available
for graduating seniors, employers are still wary of hiring new graduates.
More than half of the employers, 50.7 percent, who responded to the survey
said they would hire new graduates for entry-level positions this year,
while 28 percent said they plan to cut back on hiring. Another 21.3 percent
of employers predict the hiring level will not change.
The service industry projects a 22.2 percent increase in college hiring
while the manufacturing industry has a conservative projection of about
3.4 percent.
Ruggirello said that there are jobs out there, but it is more competitive,
so students must be willing to compete.
“
You must make sure you did your research and know that employers are
more selective and looking for those that really stand out,” Ruggirello
said.
Anusha Natarajan, a second-year electrical engineering graduate student,
said the job outlook seems to have improved, but it is still hard for
her to get a job because she is an international student.
“
I think it has improved, but not for international students,” said
Natarajan, who will graduate in May.
Natarajan said she has applied for about 15 to 20 jobs, but she has only
received two to three calls. She added that she is only in the early
process of applying and will have to wait a little longer for replies
from employers.
David Auerbach, an economics senior, said he has gone online to search
for internships, but has not been successful in finding positions.
“
It doesn’t look too terribly good because whenever I search for
jobs that have econ majors, there are hardly any. Most of the time, I
find jobs that aren’t directly related,” Auerbach said. Back to Top
| Previous Page | Home
|
|
|
|
