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American Morning
Job Market Still Strong for Recent College Grads
Aired May 11, 2001 - 09:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: It's that time of year again. Graduates across the country are leaving college to enter the workforce. So what can the class of 2001 expect from the job market?
Well, joining us to talk about that is Ken Ramberg. He is president of jobtrak.com, a popular job listing site for college students and young alumni. He's in our L.A. bureau this morning. Good to see you -- thanks for coming in bright and early out there.
KEN RAMBERG, PRESIDENT, JOBTRAK.COM: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
HARRIS: Now, what a difference a year makes, huh? Dot-coms like yours last year were falling all over themselves to hire these grads as soon as they came out. And now the dot-coms are just all falling on their faces. What's the market look like now?
RAMBERG: Well, many of them are. But the market is still very bright for college graduates. You need to look at the big picture here. And, according to the conference board, the unemployment rate for new grads is approximately 2 percent. That's virtually full employment.
HARRIS: Is that -- really, 2 percent?
RAMBERG: Certainly the new crop of college graduates aren't looking as hard at the start-ups, and the dot-coms. You know, last year, they were foregoing market salaries in exchange for stock options. But today, they're looking more -- at more of the traditional companies and taking a little more conservative view toward the market.
HARRIS: Interesting -- because, you know, we were just sitting here talking this morning in our production meeting about these incidents that kids are getting hired immediately out of college and then they get laid off almost before they get a chance to start the job. And we've been hearing that's been happening increasingly these days.
RAMBERG: You know, that makes for some hot news. But that's always happened and I don't think it's happening anymore today than it did last year. Again, looking at the big picture, the number of college students is expected to remain relatively flat, you know, over the next four or five years, where have you the baby-boom generation, you know, retiring.
There just aren't enough college graduates available to fill the number of vacancies that are being left open. So again, the market is bright for the next, the next several years for these college grads.
HARRIS: Well then, for whom is it brightest right now, what degree is the hottest one?
RAMBERG: Yes, there's certainly, in the computer science and the engineering field -- very, very, very hot market there, it continues to be. Nursing -- there just aren't enough nurses being trained to fill those openings. And, in the education market, K-through-12 schoolteachers -- you're still seeing public schools offering signing bonuses to new teachers.
HARRIS: Is that right? What about salaries, are they still going up or what?
RAMBERG: Salaries are still very strong. You know, grads in the engineering and computer science fields -- salaries are $45,000, $46,000 and that doesn't include the signing bonuses and the stock options.
HARRIS: OK. Well then, what about the least attractive degree right now, if there is one?
RAMBERG: The least attractive degree -- you know, I think the general liberal arts students are going to have a little bit tougher time finding a job today than they did last year. But again, we surveyed the college students last month and asked them how many jobs do you expect to have by the time that you graduate -- or how many job offers do you expect to have? And two-thirds of the students expected to have two or more job offers upon graduation -- about the same number as last year.
So I don't think that you quite see the frenzy that there was, really, last year in the job market, but the students are still very confident that there are plenty of jobs out there.
HARRIS: All right, good deal, well, Ken Ramberg, thanks much, we appreciate the advice this morning and good luck to you down the road. We'll talk to you some other time, take care.
RAMBERG: Thank you.
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