[Vision2020] 11-14-04 CNN/Money: Top 10 degrees in demand

[Art Deco aka W. Fox]

      Top 10 degrees in demand

      A new survey indicates a brighter job outlook for new college grads 
compared with last year.
      November 12, 2004: 10:55 AM EST



      NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A majority of employers expect the job market for 
the class of 2005 to be more robust than last year, with more positions to fill 
and higher starting salaries.

      Graduates with a bachelor's in business, engineering and computer-related 
fields will be in highest demand.

      Those are some of the key findings of the Job Outlook 2005 survey, 
conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, released 
Friday.

      "We're seeing a number of positive indications that the job market for new 
college graduates is improving," said Marilyn Mackes, NACE's executive director, 
in a statement. "For example, more than 80 percent of responding employers rated 
the job market for new college graduates as good, very good, or excellent. In 
comparison, last year at this time just over 38 percent gave the job market 
those ratings."

      The survey found that seven out of 10 respondents expect to increase 
starting salary offers by an average of 3.7 percent. Employers also said they 
would reassess their hiring needs more frequently. The largest group (33.3 
percent) said they would do so quarterly. In last year's survey, the largest 
group (27.4 percent) said they would only do so annually.


      When asked which new college grads they were likely to hire, the greatest 
number of employers said they were interested in hiring grads who majored in 
accounting, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, business 
administration and economics/finance.

      Rounding out the top 10 list were students who majored in computer 
science, computer engineering, marketing or marketing management, chemical 
engineering, and information sciences and systems.

      Of the 254 employers who took NACE's survey, 45.7 percent were 
service-sector employers, 40.5 percent were manufacturers, and nearly 13.8 
percent were government or nonprofit employers. Regionally, 35.8 percent are 
from the Midwest; 30.7 percent are based in the South; 21.3 percent are in the 
Northeast; and 12.2 percent hail from the West.

      In an earlier NACE survey this fall, nearly 61 percent of employers said 
they planned to hire more college grads from the class of 2004-05 than they did 
from the previous year's class. On balance, NACE expects to see an increase in 
hiring of 13 percent.

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