Good news for the class of 2012
May 18, 2012
While getting a college degree can help improve one's job marketability and earning potential, a new survey suggests those who graduate this year may be poised to do even better than last year's graduates when it comes to getting a job offer.
The 2012 Student Survey, conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), revealed that 25.5 percent of this year's grads already have a job, compared to last year, when 24 percent of those graduating knew where they were going to work.
Among 2012 graduates who applied for a job, 44.2 percent received at least one job offer. In comparison, 41.4 percent of 2011 graduates who applied for jobs received an offer.
The survey, which included more than 15,700 college seniors pursuing a bachelor's degree, also found that this year's grads may have been a little more lax about their job searches. It found that only about a half of seniors taking part in the survey (52.1 percent) reported that they had actually applied for a job. That's well below the activity reported for the Class of 2011, when approximately 75 percent had applied for a job by the time of the survey.
NACE reports that those most likely to receive a job offer were students earning degrees in accounting, engineering, computer science, economics, and business administration.
Many individuals graduating from college are eager to find employment to pay back loans as well as start putting their knowledge to work for them. According to the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA), college seniors who graduated with student loans in 2010 owed an average of $25,250.
Luckily, many moms who decide to pursue a degree can take advantage of grants for parents, scholarships for mothers, single mother scholarships and other financial aid to help make college more affordable.
