KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Next spring’s University of Tennessee graduates may have an easier time landing jobs, UT career placement officers said Tuesday.
“It looks like there’s a pretty strong job market, maybe the strongest one we’ve seen in the ’90s,” said Bob Greenberg, director of UT-Knoxville’s career services.
At UT-Chattanooga, Jean Dake said there are indications that hiring may be up next spring from a year ago, “but we still have a lot of employers who say they’re holding off (posting jobs) until after Jan. 1.”
Fall semester recruiting at UT-Martin was about the same as last year, but placement director Candice Goad said UTM’s “career day” this year was larger. “Career days are supposed to be dying out, but ours was larger,” she said.
“We’ve had employers already booking recruiting dates this spring, and that’s a little earlier than usual,” Goad said. “That’s a good indicator that we’re going to have more on-campus recruiting interest than we’ve had in the past.”
Michigan State University’s annual nationwide hiring survey projects a 4.7 percent increase in the number of new college graduate who can expect to find jobs next spring.
Greenberg said the percentage increase may be even larger at UT-Knoxville, possible 10 percent higher.
“We had close to 200 employers recruit on campus this fall,” Greenberg said. “A lot of students are getting follow-up calls from employers, and quite a few job offers seem to be coming in pretty early.”
Computer sciences graduates are in heavy demand by recruits who have visited the three UT campuses.
“Anything related to computer work and systems work is very strong right now,” Greenberg said. “In addition to recruiting activity, there are bazillion jobs listed on the Internet and the world-wide web for these types of people. Right now the demand seems insatiable.”
“Definitely, computer science,” said UT-Martin’s Goad. “We’ve had more calls for business-management jobs — a lot in agribusiness and agrochemical.”
Dake said UTC has seen a big increase in demand, both locally and from throughout the Southeast, for computer science graduates.
Logistics and transportation, accounting, engineering and some retail management areas seem to be strong, and there are lots of opportunities with insurance and financial services, Greenberg said.
Michigan State surveyed 527 businesses, industries and governmental agencies and found that chances of landing a job improved if the candidate had career-related experience such as an internship. Employers also are looking for candidates with drive, enthusiasm, initiative and computer keyboard skills.
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Contact: Bob Greenberg (423-974-5435)
Jean Dake (423-755-4184)
Candice Goad (901-587-7740)