Hiring Expected To Improve For New College Grads as More Would-Be Retirees Stay in Workforce

As noted in the recent Thought Leadership piece by Art Koff, 6 in 10 workers over 60 are putting off retirement – marking a shift in the labor market. This shift has contributed to fewer jobs available and a reduced number of open positions. However; this shift has caused more organizations to rethink their hiring practices and workplace initiatives, including tapping into older workers to train new graduates and hires. At the same time, a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) finds hiring for the Class of 2011 should be stronger this year compared to hiring last year’s Graduating Class – marking another shift in hiring practices.

Earlier this month, NACE released a study indicating the hiring outlook for this year’s college graduates is expected to be better than last year. In this study, which finds about 53 percent of employers surveyed intend to hire more college graduates from the class of 2011 than last year when 44 percent of employers said they expected to increase hiring of new college graduates. Also of note included in the NACE report: Average starting salary offers to college seniors rose 3.5 percent over last year – the first increase since 2008; and NACE’s college hiring index for February 2011 also increased from January’s numbers – rising from 120.9 to 126.3.

A news release from CareerBuilder.com indicates that 65 percent of workers age 60 plus are putting off retirement for a variety of reasons. This, combined with the growing population of college graduates entering the workforce, the number of unemployed awaiting re-entry, and the number of individual job seekers taking fewer risks, along with the fact that organizations are hiring more temporary staff and fewer people are starting new businesses, suggests there will be fewer jobs on the horizon. Yet, there still is optimism with regard to the hiring marketplace, according to a new report from Manpower Inc. The report indicates that employers in all 50 states report positive hiring intentions, and 33 out of 50 states anticipate considerable increases.

Posted by RecruitingTrends.com on March 16, 2011. Filed under Data Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry