Spotlight for Career Services Professionals
Spotlight for Recruiting Professionals
While hiring for both internships and co-ops is expected to increase this year, the anticipated increases are relatively small, according to results of NACE’s 2018 Internship & Co-op Survey.
Intern hiring is expected to grow by 1.7 percent this year. (See Figure 1.) This is down from 3.4 percent last year, but up from the hiring decrease of 4.8 percent expected in 2016.
Meanwhile, co-op hiring is expected to rise only 0.6 percent over last year. Again, this represents a drop from last year, when co-op hiring jumped up 6.3 percent, but an improvement over 2016, when co-op hiring was projected to fall 9.9 percent.
Data for the 2018 Internship & Co-op Survey report were collected from November 8, 2017, to March 2, 2018, from NACE employer members; there were 309 respondents representing 29.1 percent of all eligible respondents. The survey report will be available later this spring.
Figure 1. Hiring projections for interns, co-ops, and FT, entry-level hires: 2008-18
| Year |
Interns |
Co-ops |
Full-Time, Entry-Level |
| 2018 |
1.7% |
0.6% |
4.0% |
| 2017 |
3.4% |
6.3% |
5.8% |
| 2016 |
-4.8% |
-9.9% |
11.0% |
| 2015 |
0.0% |
0.0% |
8.3% |
| 2014 |
-3.4% |
4.4% |
7.8% |
| 2013 |
2.7% |
5.8% |
13.0% |
| 2012 |
7.5% |
8.5% |
9.5% |
| 2011 |
6.8% |
8.6% |
13.5% |
| 2010 |
-2.8% |
2.9% |
-6.9% |
| 2009 |
-20.7% |
-11.2% |
1.3% |
| 2008 |
3.7% |
4.9% |
6.1% |
Source: 2018 Internship & Co-op Survey, National Association of Colleges and Employers