Title: The Changing Landscape of Graduate Hiring in the United States
Introduction:
The post-pandemic job market for recent university graduates in the United States has seen a drastic shift from the previous year’s hiring spree. As companies navigate uncertain economic conditions and changing consumer demand, many graduates are finding themselves without the job offers they had anticipated. This article discusses the challenges faced by graduates in securing employment, the reasons behind the cutbacks in graduate hiring, and the potential impact on their career prospects.
The Shift in Graduate Hiring:
1. A Year of Resetting Expectations:
– Kevin Monahan, associate dean at Carnegie Mellon University, acknowledges the need for students to reset their expectations due to the changing job market landscape.
– Many graduates are graduating without any offers, contrasting with the previous year’s scenario when companies engaged in bidding wars to secure the best candidates.
2. Companies Restricting Hiring on Campus:
– Fearful of a recession and uncertain economic conditions, employers have scaled back their hiring efforts on campuses.
– Amazon, Wayfair, and Meta are among the companies that have cut back on graduate hiring, adjusting start dates and offering financial assistance to some hires.
– Technology, law, and consulting fields, favored by graduates, have particularly witnessed a decline in job openings.
3. The Impact on Recent Graduates:
– Recent graduates are facing challenges finding job opportunities, unlike other segments of the job market where finding new jobs is relatively easier.
– The decline in entry-level positions and internship offers adds to the complexity for graduates seeking employment.
– Handshake, a US job site, reports a decline in full-time job openings for the class of 2023 compared to the previous year.
The Reasons behind the Cutbacks:
1. Changing Consumer Demand and Labor Shortages:
– U.S. companies faced labor shortages after millions of people left the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a scramble for young workers as restrictions eased.
– However, these companies are now readjusting their hiring plans due to changing consumer demand and workforce dynamics.
2. Experienced Workers Preferred:
– The job market demand remains healthy for experienced workers, with higher-level openings increasing compared to 2019.
– Layoffs at tech companies have created a surplus of experienced workers, which has led to a preference for experienced hires over entry-level candidates.
Exploring the Implications:
1. Students Rethinking Career Plans:
– In the face of limited job opportunities, some students are reevaluating their career plans and considering options such as graduate study, temporary work, or jobs in unrelated industries.
– Smaller companies are offering a lifeline to graduates, as they have been more inclined to hire despite the overall decline in hiring activities.
2. The Impact on the Job Market Dynamics:
– The reduction in hiring by major players, such as big tech companies, is reshaping the job market landscape.
– Despite a historically tight job market with low unemployment rates, there is a distinct shift in hiring patterns and a slowdown in job vacancies.
– Demand remains concentrated in specific industries, such as leisure, hospitality, and government, while hiring in business and professional services has seen a decline.
Conclusion:
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant challenges to the job market, particularly for recent university graduates in the United States. The shifting dynamics of hiring, with major companies scaling back their recruitment efforts, have left graduates facing an uncertain job market. While experienced workers continue to find opportunities, entry-level candidates are struggling to secure employment. Graduates may need to adapt their career plans, explore alternative options, and seek opportunities with smaller companies. As the job market continues to evolve, it is crucial for graduates to remain flexible, resilient, and proactive in their pursuit of career opportunities.
Summary:
As companies grapple with uncertain economic conditions and changing consumer demand, the once thriving job market for recent university graduates in the United States has dramatically shifted. Many graduates are graduating without job offers, facing a stark contrast to the previous year’s bidding wars for top talent. Employers, fearful of a recession, have scaled back hiring efforts on campuses, impacting fields favored by graduates such as technology, law, and consulting. Changing consumer demand and an abundance of experienced workers have further contributed to the decline in entry-level positions. As a result, graduates are reassessing their career plans and exploring alternatives such as graduate study or jobs in unrelated industries. Smaller companies are offering a ray of hope for graduates, providing employment opportunities amid the cutbacks by major players. The overall job market dynamics are undergoing significant changes, requiring graduates to remain adaptable and proactive in their job search.
—————————————————-
| Article | Link |
|---|---|
| UK Artful Impressions | Premiere Etsy Store |
| Sponsored Content | View |
| 90’s Rock Band Review | View |
| Ted Lasso’s MacBook Guide | View |
| Nature’s Secret to More Energy | View |
| Ancient Recipe for Weight Loss | View |
| MacBook Air i3 vs i5 | View |
| You Need a VPN in 2023 – Liberty Shield | View |
Kevin Monahan, associate dean at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, had no trouble helping his students find jobs last year. Seniors chose among their employment options, and companies made offers a year in advance or launched bidding wars to land the best candidates.
This year, however, many are graduating without any offers. “We’ve been talking to our students about resetting expectations,” Monahan said.
Similar conversations have been taking place on campuses across the United States, as last year’s post-pandemic grad hiring spree turned into a drought. Fearful of the recession, employers have restricted hiring on campus, perplexing graduates who expected to enjoy an attractive job market.
Amazon is among the companies that have cut back on graduate hiring, saying it had pushed back the start date for university hiring by up to six months “in light of difficult economic conditions.” As a result, it has offered financial assistance to some hires.
A recruiter said applicants from home goods retailer Wayfair and Facebook owner Meta had also been informed of hiring cutbacks. Wayfair said this month that he was being “very thoughtful” about recruiting. Meta did not respond to a request for comment.
“Clearly there has been a pullback from what we were seeing in early 2022,” said Nick Bunker, an economist at job site Indeed. “What’s particularly interesting this time is how much has gone to higher-income, traditional office jobs. And for recent graduates, unlike people in other parts of the job market who can easily find new jobs, it’s relatively complicated.”
Kevin Monahan of Carnegie Mellon University
Faced with labor shortages after millions of people left the workforce during the Covid-19 pandemic, and in the face of changing consumer demand, U.S. companies scrambled to hire young workers as restrictions eased. blocking restrictions. In 2022, the number of ads for entry-level positions was 80 percent higher than in 2019, according to Revelio Labs, a job intelligence company.
In the fields favored by graduates, including technology, law and consulting, those openings have all but disappeared.
In May, entry-level job openings had cooled to just 3.7 percent above 2019 levels, according to Revelio. According to Indeed, the number of internship offers fell 15 percent compared to May 2022, though it was still above pre-pandemic levels.
Meanwhile, demand for experienced workers remained healthy: Revelio found that higher-level openings increased 55 percent compared to 2019.
“The attractive, fast-growing ones that these students grew up in and thought they would want to work for are not hiring,” said Christine Cruzvergara, director of education strategy for Handshake, a US job site geared toward college students. Handshake data showed a decline in full-time jobs open for the class of 2023 compared to last year, she added.
Young graduates are taking out their frustrations online. Some speculate that layoffs at tech companies have created a glut of more experienced workers willing to take jobs previously reserved for college dropouts.
“I see new jobs being posted on LinkedIn. . . but not at a basic level”, pointed out a graduate of 2023 in the Blind forum. An employee at HR software company Workday responded that his initial career budgets were “enough” to hire experienced developers.
An engineer from the ADP payroll administrator agreed. “Why hire with no experience when you have two or three? [years of experience] Are you willing to fill entry-level positions?
For Monahan, the first indication that employers were winding down career start-up programs came last fall, when he received annual recruiting calls with the big tech companies that tend to hire Carnegie Mellon graduates.
After a record high recruitment last year, they said they would cap in 2023. “They told us they were going to be more cautious,” Monahan said. “They used phrases like ‘We are evaluating our staff,’ [or]”We seek to make investments in strategic areas.”
Meanwhile, students didn’t come out of summer internships with job offers like they usually would. In a typical year, about 80 percent of Carnegie Mellon tech interns would get offers by the end of the summer, Monahan estimated. This year, less than a third did.
“The biggest players with the most lucrative offers are in retreat,” according to Julia Pollak, an economist at the ZipRecruiter jobs site.
That pullback comes despite a historically tight job market. Unemployment in the United States was 3.5 percent in July, a near-record low. In June, employers posted 34 percent more jobs than in the same month in 2019, according to data from the Labor Department. But there are signs of slowing down. The number of job vacancies in June fell from its March 2022 peak of 12 million to 9.6 million.
Job demand is concentrated in leisure, hospitality and, to a lesser extent, government, while hiring in business and professional services, the category that includes many white-collar jobs, fell 10.8 percent from June 2022. and June 2023.
“There is a dynamic where some industries, say, for example, big tech, grew very rapidly during the course of the pandemic and are now shrinking,” Bunker said. “Much more in-person work is still below its pre-pandemic level, so there is still some work to do to catch up.”
Some students are rethinking their graduate plans and looking at options such as graduate study, temporary work, or jobs in other industries. Monahan said that many Carnegie Mellon graduates who found jobs were hired by smaller companies.
“The class of 2023 is probably looking at some of their friends and former classmates who graduated in 2021 and 2022 and saying, ‘Hey, it would have been nice to graduate in that job market,’ Bunker added.
—————————————————-