Spotlight for Recruiting Professionals, December 7, 2011  

Nearly three-quarters of the job offers employers extended to Class of 2011 graduates were accepted, according to results of NACE’s 2011 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey. 

On average, participating organizations reported that 74.3 percent of the offers extended to Class of 2011 grads were accepted. (See Figure 1.) That’s up slightly from the 73.2 percent accepted by Class of 2010 grads, but below the 75.3 percent acceptance rate recorded for the Class of 2009, which graduated in the height of the recession. 

Interestingly, that average acceptance rate held fairly steady regardless of industry, region, or size of company. 

The offer rate, however, differed substantially depending on those parameters. Overall, respondents reported extending offers to 35 percent of the students they interviewed. Among small organizations that average fell to 29 percent, while offer rates exceeded 40 percent for organizations in the Southeast, Great Lakes, and Far West. Similarly, engineering services firms reported that 50 percent of their interviews resulted in offers, while less than 30 percent of food and beverage manufacturers did so. 

Additional highlights from the survey are available in the executive summary. For information about the full report, see www.naceweb.org/2011_recruiting_benchmarks_survey/.  

The 2011 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey was conducted June 20 – August 20, 2011; 268 NACE employer member organizations, or 31 percent, took part.