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Getting Started: New College Grads Entering A Strong Job Market

Getting Started: New College Grads Entering A Strong Job Market

By Carolyn Bigda, Chicago Tribune (TNS)

This spring, students graduating from college will have more to look forward to than the end of exams and term papers. They can also expect a strong job market.

According to a survey by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University, hiring of new grads is expected to jump 15 percent this year. The survey, which asked employers about their recruitment plans for the 2015-16 academic year, is based on responses from more than 4,730 firms.

“We’re seeing hiring rates that resemble the really strong job markets of past years,” said Philip Gardner, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute. He noted that hiring has improved annually since the 2010-11 school year, but that recruitment has really ramped up in the last three years.

“We’ve needed it,” Gardner said, pointing out that hiring must increase by 5 percent to 7 percent annually, “just to soak up new grads, never mind the students who graduated during the recession and may still be looking for suitable work.”

If you’re preparing to graduate in the spring, here’s what to expect.

Hiring is up throughout the country.

“There’s not one region that’s lagging,” Gardner said.

However, in some areas recruitment is off the charts. So-called super hirers — companies that plan to increase their hiring by more than 100 percent — are mostly in Virginia and California, followed by Michigan, Wisconsin and Texas.

“California and the D.C. metro area are home to power players in the job market right now,” Gardner said, such as technology firms, and companies in the aerospace, consulting and manufacturing industries.

Most sectors are hiring. In most cases, it doesn’t matter what career you want to pursue. Job growth is strong across industries too.

Take construction. In the aftermath of the 2007-09 recession, jobs for recent graduates all but disappeared in construction. But this year, hiring of grads with an associate’s degree is expected to climb by 37 percent in the industry. For graduates with a bachelor’s degree, recruitment is projected to jump 19 percent.

Other industries that could experience big hiring gains include automotive, health care, technology and professional services, such as accounting and marketing.

“One of the best pieces of news is that everyone is benefiting from the stronger job market, with the exception of big banks that are still sorting things out after the financial crisis,” Gardner said. “There’s not just one sector that’s going crazy.”

Still, while it will likely be easier to find a job this year, don’t expect to earn a fatter paycheck than last year’s college graduates.

According to CERI, 61 percent of companies plan to keep starting salaries at the same level as last year. Among employers that will raise wages, the median increase will be 3 percent.

Another 7 percent of companies will offer signing bonuses. Before the recession, 17 percent offered such bonuses to new college graduates.

“I’m surprised there’s not more wage pressure because competition for good job candidates is getting tough,” Gardner said. “But it’s just not there yet.”

Internships are key. Recruitment on college campuses is already in full swing, but internships are still one of the best paths to landing a gig after graduation.

According to CERI, 96 percent of employers use their internship programs, along with summer and co-op jobs, as a source for finding new hires.

“Building an internship pool is still a top strategy for companies, big or small,” Gardner said. “So if you’re a student and you haven’t done an internship, summer job or co-op (job) yet, it’s time to get on it.”

ABOUT THE WRITER

Carolyn Bigda writes Getting Started for the Chicago Tribune. yourmoney@tribune.com.

©2015 Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: Visha Angelova via Flickr

 

Standing On The Job Gains Favor In U.S. Workplaces

Standing On The Job Gains Favor In U.S. Workplaces

Washington (AFP) – Three centuries after Thomas Jefferson found standing up a superior way to work, a growing number of Americans are mulling the dangers of sitting down on the job — and opting to get on their feet.

Backaches. Muscular degeneration. Heart disease. Diabetes. Colon cancer. Even premature death is on the list of the potential consequences of a sedentary working life, according to a raft of studies on the topic.

“We’re sitting ourselves to an early death,” said Rob Danoff, a family physician in Pennsylvania and member of the American Osteopathic Association with a special interest in preventative medicine.

“We are a ‘potato’ society,” he told AFP in a telephone interview.

“We sit most of the day, so we are work potatoes — and then we go home and we are couch potatoes. That combination can be deadly.”

Adult Americans spend on average 7.7 hours a day engaged in “sedentary behavior,” the National Institutes of Health has reported.

And the American Osteopathic Association estimates that 70 percent of office workers spend more than five hours a day seated at their desks.

The longer people are sitting, the more difficult it is for their blood to circulate, explained Danoff, who cautioned that going to the gym after work affords no compensation.

According to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the risk of premature death grows 15 percent for those who sit eight hours a day, and 40 percent for those who sit 11 hours a day, compared with those who sit just four hours.

Last year, the American Medical Association formally recognized the “potential risks of prolonged sitting” as it urged employers and employees alike to seek out alternatives to sitting, such as standing working stations — some even equipped with a treadmill — or isometric balls instead of desk chairs.

The message is starting to get around, with more Americans choosing standing desks — like Jefferson, one of the U.S. founding fathers and third president, prolific architect and well-known tinkerer, who favored standing when doing his tasks.

“Standing desks have been popular probably for 20 years in Europe, but not in the United States,” said Jeffrey Meltzer, president of Applied Ergonomics, an Illinois firm that specializes in workspaces.

“In the States, they were seen as silly,” said Meltzer, adding that he noticed a significant shift in 2013 when sales of standing desks leaped 50 percent.

In trend-setting California, with its youthful and cutting-edge technology sector, standing desks have become increasingly commonplace.

In Washington, Kathleen Hale, the 34-year-old co-founder of Rebel Desk, has found a market among lawyers, university professors and health professionals for standing desks with slow-paced treadmills attached.

“People have been working for healthier working environments since it’s the place where many of us are spending more time than we do with our families,” Hale said.

Bilaal Ahmed, 34, founder of the startup Linktank, has embraced the concept of an adjustable office, even if he is in excellent health.

“It’s more proactive,” he said. “It’s a desire to be healthy, to stay active even when I’m working. This is one of the best ways to do that.”

He added: “It’s not only to be standing, but also to have the computer at a certain level, so your arms are perpendicular to the body.”

If he gets tired, Ahmed simply flops down into a nearby chair. Overall, he said he feels more alert, more aware and more productive.

Hale recommends mixing up positions throughout the day.

“Sometimes you stand. Sometimes you walk. And when you need to, you sit, to take a break,” she said. “That’s how we encourage people to think about sitting — it’s a time to take a break.”

Danoff said staying in motion is key.

“We weren’t made to sit all day,” he said. “We were not made to stand all day. We were made to move. It’s all about balance.”

He said it is “unrealistic” to install standing desks in most places, as doing so could result in going from one extreme to another.

Just getting up for a moment every half-hour, going for a walk in the hallway, taking the stairs instead of the elevator and seeing a colleague instead of sending an email are all useful options.

“There are a lot of things that people can do which they don’t do,” he said. “You don’t need all this fancy equipment. There are common things to do.”

©afp.com / Fabienne Faur

Detroit Teacher Who Broke Up Fight With Broom Gets Her Job Back

Detroit Teacher Who Broke Up Fight With Broom Gets Her Job Back

By Robert Allen, Detroit Free Press

DETROIT — A Detroit high school teacher fired after using a broom to break up a vicious fight in a classroom is getting back her job with retroactive pay, school district officials announced Tuesday.

Tiffani Eaton was fired May 1, one day after the incident at Pershing High School, where the fight erupted between two boys.

She will have the option of returning to the school or another school in the district of her choosing, according to the Education Achievement Authority of Michigan.

Eaton recently was represented by Abood Law Firm as it worked to get her termination reversed. Attorney Jeffrey Lance Abood issued a statement Tuesday morning saying that they appreciate the EAA acknowledging “that their previous action was wrong,” and they’re working with the school district to resolve the matter before Eaton will make a comment.

Principal Gregory King had said in an emailed statement that the firing seemed illegal and “basic investigation procedures usually followed were not undertaken.”

He also said he has asked repeatedly for safety-committee meetings and for administrators to address insufficient security at the school, which is guarded at the entrance with metal detectors.

Present and former students of the school had a mixed reaction to Eaton’s firing, with some saying she didn’t have any better options but others saying she went too far by striking a student.

In a video obtained by Fox 2, one boy appears to be pummeling another in the head when Eaton steps in to break up the fight.

The Education Achievement Authority is a statewide body that takes over failing schools. It was responsible for the firing and reinstatement.

U.S. Jobless Claims Tumble To Seven-Year Low

U.S. Jobless Claims Tumble To Seven-Year Low

Washington (AFP) – New claims for U.S. unemployment insurance benefits tumbled last week to the lowest level in seven years, government data released Thursday showed.

Initial jobless claims, a sign of the pace of layoffs, totaled a seasonally adjusted 300,000 in the week ending April 5, a decrease of 32,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised figure of 332,000, the Labor Department said.

The prior week’s number was previously estimated at 326,000.

The last time claims were so low was May 12, 2007, when they were 297,000.

The drop in claims last week was much sharper than the average estimate of 1,000 decline penciled in by analysts.

The four-week moving average was 316,250, down by 4,750 from the prior week’s slightly revised 321,000 reading.

Claims have slowly trended lower over the past year. The four-week moving average stood at 355,000 a year ago.

There were no special factors that affected last week’s claims numbers, the Labor Department said.

“We’d love to proclaim these numbers as definitive evidence of a real downshift in the trend in claims, but it’s even riskier than usual to put too much weight on single observations at this time of year,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

“The shifting date of the Easter holiday from year-to-year causes problems for the seasonal adjustments, so we need to see a few more weeks’ numbers before we can be sure where the trend now stands.”

Shepherdson said that claims appeared to be drifting downward and that job growth was set to pick up.

The U.S. unemployment rate stood at 6.7 percent in March, while job growth over the first three months of the year was better than analysts expected given the unusually bad winter weather that gripped much of the country.

Photo: Samuel Huron via Flickr