Economists say career adaptability will be key for entry-level applicants as the economy continues to shift.
Millions of college seniors are donning their caps and gowns this week to walk across the stage and grab their hard-earned diplomas.
They\u2019ll also be walking into a labor market that is very much in flux, with some bright spots for employment opportunities alongside some toppling of expectations.
Jobs growth last month beat analysts\u2019 expectations in numbers released on Friday. Nonfarm payrolls increased 253,000 for April, more than the estimated growth of 180,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The low unemployment rate edged even lower, from 3.6% to 3.4%.
But the report was the latest in a host of mixed signals about the health of the job market awaiting new graduates. Earlier this week, the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for March showed new positions in the U.S. falling for the third consecutive month. Openings were down 384,000, the lowest level since April 2021.
In an April survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, an industry group for recruiters and higher ed professionals, businesses said they expected to hire 4% more graduates from the class of 2023 than they did from the class of 2022. But that was a drastic decline from the group\u2019s December projection of about 15%.
Then, the ADP payroll report said private businesses added 296,000 jobs in April, more than double that of the previous month.
Experts said a combination of factors got us here. Some industries, like the tech sector, have felt the brunt of the 10 interest rate hikes the Federal Reserve has implemented since March last year. In other areas, while the economy has generally recovered from the pandemic disruption, employers can\u2019t find enough workers.
\u201cThere still are sectors and enterprises that are having trouble getting the workers they need, and all one needs to do is travel in the United States to experience that,\u201d said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst for Bankrate.
Those sectors include health care and leisure and hospitality, which posted gains in Friday\u2019s job report by about 40,000 and 31,000 openings, respectively.
Gabbie Ferron, 22, will have a position waiting for her when she graduates from the University of Portland in Oregon on Sunday with her nursing degree. Ferron applied for the nurse resident opening at nearby Legacy Emanuel Medical Center one day in mid-April, received a call to interview for the role, and was hired the day after her interview. The process lasted all of two weeks.
\u201cIt is, like, shocking,\u201d said Ferron, who will participate in an 18-week apprenticeship at the hospital before becoming a registered nurse. It was the only job application she completed, and she agreed to take the night shift for an additional $6 per hour.
A report released Tuesday by the recruiting software company iCIMS found that the class of 2023 expected an average salary of about $66,500, more than $8,000 higher than what employers expected to pay entry-level employees but lower than the previous year\u2019s expected pay of $70,000.
Ferron declined to say what her full pay rate will be, but said it was \u201cmore than I was expecting\u201d and was \u201cvery comparable to all the other hospitals around here.\u201d
\u201cI was stressed because every week in class, my nursing professors would be like, \u2018OK, who has jobs?\u2019\u201d said Ferron. \u201cAnd even in February, March, like half the class already had jobs.\u201d
A recent state-commissioned study showed that Oregon, like much of the country, is contending with a shortage of registered nurses. It would need to fill at least 13,500 positions to meet the need, the report said.
Figures that ZipRecruiter shared with NBC News showed steep demand for roles in health care and education. Openings for nursing jobs increased by more than 12% since April 2022, while posts seeking high school teachers, for example, spiked 64%.
Listings for jobs in the technology industry plummeted by more than half.
\u201cWe don\u2019t want all of the talk around layoffs in tech companies to dissuade students from entering the workforce,\u201d said Daniel Voloch, chief program officer at Girls Who Code, a nonprofit group that trains and advocates for young-to-early career women and nonbinary people to enter the tech industry.
\u201cWorking in the tech industry can mean so many different things, and that can mean working in health care, art or government,\u201d said Voloch. \u201cThey can take all of the skills and experiences that they\u2019ve been developing and apply it to a career in tech, even if it\u2019s not at one of the big tech companies.\u201d
Some blue-chip brands have continued to invest in tech hiring amid the now-regular cadence of the industry itself hemorrhaging employees. Walmart recently subleased 21,000 square feet of office space in midtown Atlanta \u2014 populated by Georgia Tech University and its pupils \u2014 for what the company called its \u201cGlobal Tech Atlanta Hub.\u201d It will count Cisco and WeWork among its new neighbors.
Another sector where graduates are finding difficulty landing: communications. In the Labor Department\u2019s report, openings in the information industry \u2014 which includes publishing and telecommunications \u2014 posted only 1,000 new positions. ZipRecruiter data shows that openings for positions in the media industry have decreased by nearly 64% over the last year.
Carly Wood, 22, will be graduating from Ohio-based Marietta College on Saturday. The graphic-design and strategic communications double major described her job search as the opposite of Ferron\u2019s swift recruitment: After applying to 180 jobs, she\u2019s only had about six interviews. None of them have materialized into employment.
\u201cI got to a point where I was literally kind of like anxious if I wasn\u2019t actively applying to jobs throughout the day,\u201d said Wood, who works as a barista at Starbucks. She said the roles she\u2019s applied to range from graphic designer to social media manager.
\u201cI think that this field, particularly, is a little more saturated than people realize,\u201d she said. \u201cI think I\u2019ve actually applied to every single job posting in the greater Columbus area at this point.\u201d
Economists emphasized a message of adaptability for students graduating into a shifting landscape.
\u201cThere are opportunities. They may just not be exactly where you would have wanted to find them,\u201d said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.
Pollak said industries where \u201cfirst-time\u201d job seekers tend to start their professional journeys \u2014 positions that might not require a college degree, for example \u2014 are adding headcount, which could translate to \u201cgetting promoted quickly.\u201d
According to data from the N.Y. Fed, the underemployment rate for the U.S. job market \u2014 meaning, the number of college graduates not working a job requiring a college degree \u2014 was at 40%, the highest in two decades.
\u201cI think it is forcing some students to keep an open mind about where they start their careers,\u201d said Pollak.
Eric Christensen, 26, graduated from the University of Utah last week with a communications degree. Despite applying to at least 10 full-time journalism positions in the Salt Lake City area, Christensen received only one callback. The company hasn\u2019t followed up, he said.
Christensen said, for now, he\u2019ll wait out the economic uncertainty and stick with his part-time student services work at a local community college. He was married in February, and he and his wife recently got an apartment with a friend to split the rent.
In the meantime, he\u2019s applying to other positions in higher education where he can put his new degree to use, such as managerial positions similar to the part-time work he does in student services.
\u201cIt\u2019s been a relatively long search,\u201d said Christensen. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve certainly felt the need for that full-time job compared to what I\u2019m doing with my life right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n