Spotlight for Career Services Professionals, September 14, 2011 

While employers on average attended more career fairs in 2010-11 than they had the previous year, the percentage of employers conducting on-campus interviews continued to fall, according to results of NACE’s 2011 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey. 

In 2009-10, employers participated in an average of 26 career fairs. That number grew to 29 in 2010-11. 

Meanwhile, the slow but steady decline in on-campus interviewing that has been occurring since 2004 continued. But the news on this front isn’t all bad. While the percentage of firms conducting on-campus interviews dropped slightly to 77.4 percent in 2010-11 from 77.7 percent in 2009-10 and 80 percent in 2008-09, the percentage of hires from on-campus interviews increased slightly. In 2010-11, it was 64.1 percent; the previous year, 63.6 percent. 

NACE’s 2011 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey was conducted from June 15, 2011, to August 15, 2011. More than 210 employers participated. A report of the survey results will be available in October.