US Hiring of College Grads Now at Record Pace - Best Entry Level Job Market of All Time
Wednesday, February 5th, 2020
With new stock market highs, unemployment at the lowest rate in almost 50 years along with unprecedented job growth, 2020 is turning out to be a great year to be a new college graduate. According to the results of a new entry level hiring survey of large US employers, hiring of new college grads in 2020 is up 5.5% over the previous year. CollegeGrad.com released the results of its Top Entry Level Employers survey today, with more than 400 employers making the list.
"This is another very positive sign of the vigorous economy and how it benefits college students and recent grads," said Brian Krueger, CEO of CollegeGrad.com. "This has created a true seller's market for college students graduating in 2020, with more jobs than ever available for new graduates."
The full survey results of the Top Entry Level Employers are now available online at CollegeGrad.com/topemployers. The list includes employer detail pages displaying projected entry level and intern hires for 2020 along with direct links to the careers page, college page and internship page at each employer's website.
The #1 entry level employer in the US is Enterprise Rent-A-Car, with 8,500 planned entry level hires in 2020. "This is one of the most competitive job markets we have seen in over 20 years," said Enterprise Holdings' Vice President of Talent Acquisition Marie Artim. "Because we empower employees to become our future leaders by promoting from within, we continue to need to hire college graduates into our Management Training program. Enterprise employs a hands-on approach that allows individuals to hone their entrepreneurial skills and learn what it takes to run a successful business. With a breadth of opportunities and the growth of business functions across the company's operations, employees have the opportunity to change careers without changing companies."
"The market demand for entry level candidates remains strong," said James Powell, National Partner In Charge of Campus Recruiting and University Relations for KPMG. "At KPMG the trend continues to not only seek entry level hires in accounting, but also in engineering, information systems and informatics, computer science and data analytics. We have expanded our candidate profile to meet the evolving needs of our clients during this very robust entry level job market."
Krueger noted, "Employers are now waging a true war for talent for entry level college grads. The peak economy has produced more job openings than there are students graduating to fill these vacancies. While the supply of new college graduates each year is fairly constant, the number of entry level jobs continues to increase. Something has to give. Employers are being more flexible in hiring and entry level salaries continue to increase at a rate higher than the rest of the job market. There simply are not enough new college grads to fill the open positions."