US: Graduate job market worst in decades - survey

Hiring levels for college graduates across America are at their lowest level in decades and are not expected to improve in 2010, a new survey from Michigan State University has found, writes Sven Gustafson for MLive. The survey also found that graduates must be flexible and entrepreneurial to compete for fewer jobs with lower salaries and benefits.

MSU's 2009 Recruiting Trends survey, released last Monday, found that hiring levels plummeted between 35% and 40% in 2009. That is a bigger slide than the 8% to 10% drop predicted in last year's study. Overall hiring is predicted to drop 2% in 2010, said Phil Gardner, who conducts the study for MSU's Collegiate Employment Research Institute.

The annual survey polled more than 2,500 employers nationwide using the career-service departments of 30 other universities around the country. It found that only small businesses of 500 employees or less forecast an increase in hiring, at 15% in the coming year.

Both mid-size companies and large companies of 4,000 workers or more said they planned to decrease hiring, by 11% and 3% respectively.
Full report on the MLive.com site