Hats Off to the Class of 2017. Let the Job Hunt Begin

Congratulations to the Class of 2017. Earning a Bachelor’s degree is a great step towards building a promising future. But will this year’s graduates (nearly 1.9 million) gain a foothold in today’s job market? The good news is the economy is much stronger than it has been in recent years. At 4.4 percent, unemployment is at its lowest rate since before the recession. We’ve also added 8.4 million college jobs to the economy since the recovery began in 2010, compared to a mere 80,000 high school jobs, which positions college grads at a great advantage.

So it is with heads held high that college graduates can stride forth towards the employment line, where, if current trends continue, they won’t have to wait long. The fact that it is now an employee’s market means workers can be choosier. Our research finds that the vast majority of good jobs, which we define as those that are full-time, pay more than $53,000, and include employer-provided benefits, are going to college graduates. This means that when we say the economy is strong, graduates have a better menu of options than the service jobs that may have been more commonplace in previous years.

So, where can new graduates find jobs? We can look at this three ways—locations, postings, and skills. For location, we examined the top 100 metro areas ranked by recent college graduates’ employment-to-population ratio to get a better sense of location advantages. While some major metro areas like Washington D.C., make the list, not all large metro areas are grabbing the top slots. In fact, Portland, Maine takes the number one spot with an employment-to-population ratio of 89 percent and an average median salary of $34,000. Pennsylvania also looks like a good state for college grads to start, with three metro areas in the top 20. See the full list here.

Here’s a free piece of advice: negotiate that first salary. Graduating into a healthy economy can increase the salary of a first job by $3,000 to $4,000. That first salary sets a template for salaries in future jobs so it is important to earn as much as you can in your first job. Graduates curious about their earnings potential can browse our award-winning online tool that compares salaries for 15 major groups and 137 detailed major subgroups nationally and within states. It’s also important to know where to find job opportunities, and what skills employers seek the most. In this day and age where technology is king, our research finds that more than 80 percent of job openings for college graduates are now found online.

While these are promising signs of a blue-sky job market for college graduates, it comes with the cloudy skies of student debt. Today, students graduate with more debt than in recent years—$34,000 on average, which is a 70 percent increase from ten years ago. But let’s not let that put a damper on this exciting season. For the first time in a decade, these newly-minted graduates stand a better chance at securing a well-paying job that can offset their debt and propel them to career success than their post-recession counterparts. Please join me in commending the Class of 2017 and encouraging them as they embark on their next chapter.

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Dr. Carnevale is Director and Research Professor of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, an independent, nonprofit research and policy institute affiliated with the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy that studies the link between education, career qualifications, and workforce demands.