GRAND RAPIDS - There's good news according to a new survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, they're predicting college hiring will be up 14.5% from last year, and graduates here in West Michigan are feeling the improvement in the job market. In the past four months, Grand Valley State University senior Tony Frank has had almost 15 interviews in his field of accounting, "I found that it's easy for me to get the interviews and I've had a few offers here and there but it's just finding the right company that I want to work for."
Chris Plouf works for Grand Valley State University's Career Services Office. He says the economy is what's making a difference for college hiring, "I think some of the employers are starting to staff back up from some of the down times of the early part of this decade when there were some layoffs and they're starting to bring in some new fresh faces and new ideas and trying to build and grow their businesses versus maintain where they've been at maybe in the past."
Some of the biggest growing fields include technology, accounting, finance, nursing and health sciences. "Those fields have been very, very strong as far as the employment recruiting areas as well.” Plouf adds, "Nursing has been extremely strong and it has been for several years now where all of our graduates find work."
Plouf says not only have there been more recruiters on campus but companies are now considering graduates in the liberal arts field for jobs in business and marketing, "We're seeing more and more employers open to looking at graduates from areas they traditionally would not have in the past."
That is one reason why Grand Valley has an 80% job placement rate for college graduates, and why Tony Frank says he's confident he'll be employed by the end of the summer, "I'm looking forward to a real job now, a real career."
For more information on the job outlook for college graduates go to the big story section of our home page.
Valerie Lego