Dive Brief:
- More than 80% of graduates from the class of 2015 are employed or enrolled in graduate school one year after leaving college.
- In keeping with industrial trends, graduates with degrees in STEM fields are having the easiest time finding job placement and earning the best starting salaries.
- Liberal arts graduates' employment rates improved in comparison to graduates from 2014.
Dive Insight:
The class of 2015 has benefited from the slow return of jobs in key industries like manufacturing and job creation in tech, transportation and public health. Colleges and universities which have emphasized interdisciplinary collaboration are reaping rewards for their investment; more baccalaureate graduates are finding an easier time with job placement thanks to skills learned and developed outside of their traditional major curricula.
Community colleges, as reported in Inside Higher Ed, do not have similar employment outcomes for 2015, but they will become an essential partner in training the workforce that will handle frontline and adminstrative management for growing companies and industries.
As politics may shift in the next few months to reward job creation within domestic borders, more industries will seek out entry-level employees to staff low- and mid-level positions with flexible skill sets — something two-and four-year schools are strengthening their capacity to teach.