GREEN BAY, Wis. — Graduation for many is just around the corner and spring college graduates are looking at one of the most optimistic hiring markets in recent memory.
The unemployment rate right now is at 3.6 percent, the lowest since 1969. With graduation season just around the corner that equates to a lot of college grads scoring jobs right out of the gate.
At NWTC in Green Bay, they've noticed this trend gaining momentum in recent years and just last year, 92 percent of their graduates landed a job within just six months of wrapping up classes. Those jobs include ones that paid over $40,000 a year.
This year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says wages have already risen an average of 3.2 percent.
"So, I expect that this year we're going to see the same increase in that starting wage for associate degree holders,” explains NWTC’s Karen Smits. “Every year the demand over the last five years has gotten greater and greater for our graduates. Every year the number of jobs that are available for them is higher."
For students obtaining a four-year degree at colleges like St. Norbert, the hiring trend is very similar: about 93 percent of their graduates last year had a job or were already in graduate school within just 12 months.
