Cheer on Campus

At the nation's colleges and universities, January can be the busiest month. Christmas vacation ends; midyear exams are either just beginning or just completed; the basketball season heats up--and corporate recruiters descend on campus to start their annual quest for talent. In recent years the job market dwindled. Now, though there may be snow on the quad from Princeton to Portland State, the winter of student discontent is waning.

Three surveys of corporate hiring plans show that prospects for June graduates are up significantly this year. The outlook for aspiring teachers is still cheerless, but newly minted engineers will be sought almost as avidly as All-America fullbacks. The College Placement Council of Bethlehem, Pa., surveyed 672 corporations and found that job offers would be up 15% this year for recipients of bachelor's degrees, 22% for holders of master's degrees and 20% for Ph.D.s. John Shingleton, director of the Michigan State University placement bureau, predicts that there will be a strong market for most skills this year, particularly in accounting and hotel management. Meanwhile, an annual job forecast compiled by Frank S. Endicott, Northwestern University education professor emeritus, indicates that job offers to college graduates will be up 19% for men and 35% for women from last year, and that openings for engineers with bachelor's degrees will rise 42%. The recent recession and lagging federal spending on aerospace and defense projects darkened career prospects for some types of engineers. These factors apparently kept many students away from the field. John Alden, a manpower analyst at the Engineering Joint Council, predicts a nationwide engineer shortage in the next few years.

For all the increase in jobs, starting salaries will be little changed from last year. Endicott predicts only about a 2% overall rise in pay--less than last year's inflation. According to Endicott, these are the average monthly starting salaries being offered for male June graduates with bachelor's degrees:

ENGINEERING $905 ACCOUNTING 902 PHYSICS 880 CHEMISTRY 843 SALES 804 MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS 796 ECONOMICS AND FINANCE 790 LIBERAL ARTS 724 BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 722

In sum, a plentiful supply of job openings will make a welcome graduation present for the class of 1973.

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