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Hiring Outlook For College Graduates Improves

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

For several years now, we've been hearing about how college grads are entering this awful job market. Well, it appears their prospects might be improving. Yesterday, the National Association of Colleges and Employers said it expects 13 percent more hiring for the class of 2013 over the year before.

Here's NPR's Yuki Noguchi.

YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: Better is, of course, relative. Andrea Koncz is employment information manager for the association, whose members include college administrators and recruiters. She says 2007 was a high water mark for this employment survey. In 2009, hiring of college grads plummeted 22 percent.

ANDREA KONCZ: We're definitely back from that negative 22 percent, but I don't know that we're all the way back to where we were.

NOGUCHI: The increase in hiring from this graduating year is happening across most sectors, but prospects vary. Pharmaceutical, finance, technology and insurance companies are looking first and foremost for people with numbers skills, so finance majors, computer science and accounting are among the top degrees in demand. Theater and philosophy did not make that list.

KONCZ: I don't think I've ever seen them on there.

NOGUCHI: Koncz says the full report will be available in November.

Yuki Noguchi, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Yuki Noguchi is a correspondent on the Science Desk based out of NPR's headquarters in Washington, D.C. She started covering consumer health in the midst of the pandemic, reporting on everything from vaccination and racial inequities in access to health, to cancer care, obesity and mental health.