The status… is green. On paper, it couldn't be a better time to land your first job. The US is experiencing basically full employment. Last month the US added 428K jobs, leaving a record 12M “help wanted” signs unfilled. That’s good news for college seniors, since employers plan to hire over a quarter more graduates this May compared with last year. They’ll be making an average starting salary of $55K, but the return on (degree) investment tends to vary (comp-sci majors are starting at $72K, English majors at $49K).
Nearly two-thirds of all public bachelor's degree programs leave graduates able to earn enough to cover the cost of college within a decade. But for recent grads, a survey found more than half don’t end up working in their field of study — and nearly half live paycheck to paycheck.
SnackStat: 78% of Snackers said they felt “fairly confident” or “very confident” about their job prospects as college students or recent grads.
Snackers say:
The outlook… is unclear. Even though companies like Starbucks pay extra so that you'll make rush-hour lattes, overall wages aren't keeping up with inflation. Many students feel that tacking on two years (or more) for grad school is the cost of doing biz to land a competitive role in certain fields. The value of that extra degree is mixed: while master’s degree holders can make 20% more than those with a bachelor’s, employability (aka: the odds of getting hired) increases only by 3%. Plus, more school means more tuition: nearly half of federal student-loan debt comes from postgrad for master’s and Ph.D. programs.