Spotlight for Career Services Professionals
Spotlight for Recruiting Professionals
May 9, 2012 

More than one quarter (25.5 percent) of the Class of 2012 that applied for a job already has one in hand, according to results of NACE’s 2012 Student Survey. 

That’s up slightly from last year at this time, when 24 percent of 2011 graduates who had applied for a job reported having accepted one. 

The current class also outpaced last year’s class in terms of job offers: 44.2 percent of those who applied for a job received an offer, compared to 41.4 percent of 2011 graduates. Most likely to receive offers: accounting, engineering, computer science, economics, and business administration majors, with 50 percent or more of those applying for jobs receiving at least one offer. 

Overall, slightly more than half of seniors (52.1 percent) reported that they had actually applied for a job. That’s well below the activity reported for the Class of 2011—approximately 75 percent had applied for a job by the time of the survey—but consistent with results for the Class of 2007 through the Class of 2010, when the percent of class applying for jobs hovered between 42 and 50 percent. 

Overall, nearly 48,000 students across the country, including 15,715 graduating seniors, took part in the survey, which was conducted mid-January through April 30. (Note: A report based on results from graduating seniors will be available this summer; highlights from the survey will be reported in Spotlight over the next several months.)