Outlook perks up a bit for ’11 grads

By Karl Henkel | October 7, 2011 at 12:06a.m.

JOB prospects best in 4 years, data show

YOUNGSTOWN

Jeron Hollis is excited to graduate from college.

Hollis, 23, will receive his civil-engineering degree in December from Youngstown State University and hopes to have a job already in place.

“I’m confident,” he said. “I’m 100 percent sure [I’ll be able to find something].”

The numbers may be on Hollis’ side.

Though job prospects have been few and the unemployment rate has been high — it’s still at 9.7 percent in the Mahoning Valley — college graduates in 2011 are seeing the best job outlook in four years.

Employers already have added more new college graduates in 2011 than in 2010 and more than double what they hired in 2009.

Things look particularly promising for so-called millennials such as Hollis, born after 1980.

The number of unemployed millennials decreased by 300,000 this summer compared with last year; there are now 4.1 million unemployed people between age 16 and 24.

Millennials, which had a record-high unemployment rate of 19.1 percent in 2010, now have an 18.1 percent rate as of July, signaling employers’ preference to hire students directly out of college.

“One of the reasons for that is because large companies think it’s a safer hire,” said Jay Singh, demand development manager at Experience.com, a career website that connects 5 million college students with employers nationwide. “For companies, it’s a lot cheaper.”

He said that’s good news but that millennials aren’t necessarily taking advantage of the opportunities.

Of Experience.com’s approximately 1 million job postings, roughly 20 percent aren’t applied for, meaning college grads are leaving job prospects on the table.

Some students, however, such as Hollis, have taken notice.

“There were more companies here than during the past four years,” Hollis said about YSU’s most recent job fair. “And it looks like they’re hiring across all majors.”

He still faces an uphill battle, however.

Though his preferred profession is in the engineering field, he acknowledged that he looked at employers from all lines of work Wednesday, including Giant Eagle and Wal-Mart.

“There aren’t a lot of entry-level engineering positions out there,” Hollis said. “I’m looking for someone with an entry-level opening that’s willing to work with me.”

But preferred positions aren’t the only options if recent college grads want to find work quickly. Singh said that many tech-savvy jobs, such as those in social media, are prime opportunities for any graduate.

“For that particular job, they only want college students,” he said. “A lot of degrees can be substituted.”