Employers Say New Grads Are Largely Prepared for Work, With Room to Improve

New grad preparation

Overall, employers say new college graduates are reasonably well prepared for the jobs they will enter after graduation—and more than 20% say they are very well prepared, according to NACE’s Job Outlook 2026 Spring Update.

New graduate skills also track with employer needs. More than 40% of employers taking part in the survey said new grads skills are very closely aligned to their hiring needs, and 56% say they are partially aligned.

There is, however, room for improvement.

In terms of career readiness skills, employers see communication, teamwork, professionalism, and critical thinking skills as most important for new graduates, and most give new grads high marks for their teamwork abilities. But they are less impressed with new grads’ communication, professionalism, and critical thinking skills. (See Figure 1.)

Practical Steps to Closing the Skills Gap

For career services, the results point to the importance of integrating career readiness skills across the student experience. Coursework, internships and other experiential opportunities, and co-curricular activities all help students develop workplace skills that employers are looking for and can support their workforce preparation.

The results also suggest that students need help articulating and demonstrating their skills to employers. In fact, the overwhelming majority of employers said they want potential candidates not to just list their skills but to provide examples. Career services can work with students to help them translate their classroom learning and experiences into skills language that is meaningful to employers and identify examples that illustrate career readiness and job-specific skills.

For their part, employers can help themselves develop a pool of career-ready candidates by expanding internship opportunities and building skills-development into their internships, sponsoring skills-focused activities (such as hackathons), and communicating their skill requirements clearly in job postings and job descriptions.

The Job Outlook 2026 Spring Update survey, sponsored by Jobscan, was conducted February 12 – March 17, 2026. Of the 185 total respondents, 142 were NACE employer members, representing 19.9% of eligible member respondents, and 43 responses were provided by nonmember companies. The survey updates hiring projections for the Class of 2026, which were reported in November 2025. (Note: Data are calculated on the number of respondents to a specific question. Total may not equal 100% due to rounding.)