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Employment Prospects Not So Promising for New Grads

Written by:
Shali Zhu

Although the U.S. economy is on the road to recovery, the job market is still far from upbeat, especially for college students who are graduating this school year. In a survey conducted by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University, 36 percent of companies that hired new graduates last year are either uncertain whether they will hire again this academic year or are sure that they will not hire at all. Moreover, the figure for companies that said they will not hire or are not sure is more than twice as high, at 76 percent, among firms that did not hire last year. These firms are not a small minority; nearly a third of the firms surveyed did not hire college students in the previous academic year, states a recent Wall Street Journal article.

According to the survey results, fewer than 45 percent of the employers who hired new graduates last year will definitely do so again this year, and only seven percent of the companies that did not hire last year are certain about bringing new hires on board this year. Phil Gardner, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute, explains that many employers remain extremely uncertain about having new hires because their sales have not returned and “they don't want to make a commitment to hire when everything could still go foul on them." Some of the reasons the surveyed companies offered for not hiring new graduates this year include concerns about taxes, health-care costs, the uncertain political picture, as well as continuing economic woes.

The hiring picture may not be quite as gloomy for soon-to-be graduates looking to join financial services and consulting firms, who have been recruiting students more aggressively than they have in the past couple of years, according to Mark Smith, director of the career center at Washington University in St. Louis.
To read more about this year’s hiring prospects for college graduates, [click here](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870452650457563476073785820...).

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