Companies did not show much interest until February or March of this year, a few months later than a normal hiring cycle.
5/13/11 Amherst - Republican staff photo by Michael Beswick- The 141st Commencement for Bachelor's Degree Candidates at UMass Amherst. Left to right are Terri Guarino a Public Health graduate from Cape Cod, Casey McCarthy an Enviornmental Design graduate from Boston and Samantha LeBoeuf a Social Behavioral Sciences and legal Studies graduate from Cape Cod leaving the Graduation Ceremony at UMass Friday.Class of 2011, meet Lisa M. Pignatare, class of 2010.
A communications major who wants to make her career in radio and television production, Pignatare said she’s still looking for a full-time job 12 months after getting her bachelor’s degree from Westfield State University. In the meantime, she’s worked seasonally at Six Flags New England and elsewhere, and has done internships at local stations trying to get a foot in the door.
“I just hope that some of these places take me seriously,” she said.
Despite Pignatare’s frustrations, the hiring outlook for freshly minted college graduates is better this year than it was in 2010.
“We’ve seen a small resurgence, not a large resurgence,” said Junior Delgado, director of the career center at Westfield State.
Employers plan to hire 19.3 percent more college graduates in 2011 than in 2010, according to a survey released by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a Pennsylvania group that represents college career counselors, and companies that recruit often on college campuses. The group received survey responses from 743 employers.
Hiring rose just 5.3 percent last spring and it fell 21 percent in the spring of 2009.
The Northeast was the strongest region in the U.S., with hiring expected to increase by 25.6 percent.
Among the large companies that belong to the association, those in engineering, construction, utilities and oil and gas exploration showed the biggest growth. Government job openings will drop, victims of tight budgets, according to the report.
Delgado said police agencies including the West Virginia State Police, have been to the Westfield campus speaking with criminal justice majors. Teacher hiring is slow because municipal budget uncertainty.
According to the survey, hiring officers are looking for graduates who are able to verbally communicate effectively, make decision and organize and prioritize their work assignments. Written communications and sales ability were lower on the list.
“I see more business services like marketing and sales,” said Wilfred Lemire, director of career services Western New England University. “Business are stretching their muscles. Let’s get some marketing and customer service going. Let’s build a demand for our product.”
And education still pays, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate for those with a high-school diploma only was 9.7 percent nationally in April, down from 10.5 percent in April 2010. The rate for those with a bachelor’s degree or better was 4.5 percent, down from 4.8 percent a year ago.
The median salary for someone with only a high-school diploma was $626 a week in 2010 compared with $767 for someone with an associate’s degree and $1,038 for those with a bachelor’s degree or better, also according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 170 companies came to campus this year to recruit, and 550 jobs were posted through the on-campus computer system, said Nicholas P. Wegman, executive director of the Chase Career Center in the university’s
Isenberg School of Management. That’s up from 126 companies and 310 jobs a year ago.
Companies did not show much interest until February or March of this year, though, a few months later than they do in a normal hiring cycle, Wegman said.
“They all wanted to see what that quarter looked like,” he said.
At UMass Amherst, Jeremy Roccabruna of Pittsfield graduated with a marketing degree from the Isenberg School of Business.
He’s working at Best Buy in Hadley and will be job hunting. He’s not sure what he wants to do. He’s not worried though, he said, because he has a job and is happy to be graduating.
Angelica Webb of Springfield graduated from UMass with a degree in sociology and is awaiting test results to see if she will be admitted to the police academy. She wants to be a Springfield police officer.
Everybody wants the criminals put away, but “nobody wants to be the one doing it,” she said.
TD Bank increased its recruiting this year in New England, said Jimmy A. Hernandez, a spokesman for the bank. Recruiters went to Western New England University, Westfield State, UMass, Springfield College and the Massachusetts College of the Liberal Arts in North Adams.
Jobs range from entry-level teller positions to credit analyst, and include loan training programs, Hernandez said.
Westfield State’s Delgado said retailers like Kohl’s and Home Depot, and Enterprise Rent A Car also recruit college graduates in order to groom them for management positions.
“A lot of those places only promote from within for higher-level jobs,” he said.