Soon the last final exam will end, the caps and gowns will adorn graduates and the time spent as college students will come to a close. For most college students, graduation becomes the time to move into the real world, find a job and start the careers they have learned about for four years.
But with the economy still recovering from a recession and the Federal Reserve's announcement last week that the unemployment rate increased in February to 5.4 percent from January's 5.2 percent, many graduates are left wondering if they can expect to find a job.
\It depends on which industries or sectors students are seeking employment in,"" said L. Allen Phelps, UW-Madison professor and director of the Center on Education and Work. ""I think there's employment growth in some fields, like engineering and health-related fields.""
Engineering Career Services has seen steady improvement in student recruitment over the past three and a half years. Susan Piacenza, associate director in Engineering Career Services, indicated recruitment has reached the highest level since 2001.
""The fall [of 2004] recruiting season on campus was our best and our busiest recruiting season in five semesters,"" she said. ""We're definitely seeing an improvement with employers wanting to come to campus and with students reporting offers, in some cases multiple offers.""
Because of the number of companies coming to campus, career services decided to add a third career fair for the first time ever during the 2004-'05 academic year. Some employers have come to campus multiple times for special events, including Microsoft, which will be on campus this week for the fifth time this academic year. Recruitment of UW engineering students is good for all disciplines of engineering, but it is especially high for civil, electrical and computer engineers.
Despite the growth in the engineering and technology fields, there are still industries in decline, like agriculture and manufacturing, Phelps noted. It can be difficult to find jobs in many disciplines in liberal arts areas. Although the number of jobs available in liberal arts is not as high as it is for those in technology fields, recruitment has improved from the economy's bottoming-out seen during the 2001 recession, according to Ann Groves-Lloyd, director of Letters & Sciences Career Services.
""Job postings have been good on our database, and on-campus recruiting numbers have been pretty good with the number of companies coming through,"" she said. ""Things are looking up in that respect.""
Graduates in liberal arts fields usually do not have jobs when they graduate and on average face longer job searches than their counterparts entering the technology fields.
""Historically students, nationally speaking, tend to get their first professional job as liberal arts grads an average of six months after graduation,"" said Groves-Lloyd. She added this is not always because of a poor job market, but because students aren't focused on exactly what kind of job they want immediately after graduating.
UW-Madison graduates are positioned well for getting that first job soon. Groves-Lloyd noted that Wisconsin was recently named one of the top states in job creation for the last few years.
Overall, this year looks positive for students entering the job market. ""Everyone is optimistic about the current job market,"" Piacenza said. ""Students are as much as employers.""
