Spotlight for Career Services Professionals
With all respondents to NACE’s Job Outlook 2020 survey indicating plans to hire bachelor’s degree graduates, it’s no surprise that these grads are expected to account for slightly more than 83 percent of Class of 2020 hires.
Hiring for master’s degree graduates is expected to follow at 11.7 percent. Meanwhile, hiring at the associate (3 percent), doctorate (1.1 percent), and professional (0.3 percent) levels combined will comprise less than 5 percent of the remaining hires. (See Figure 1.)
Similarly, last year all respondents had plans to hire Class of 2019 graduates with bachelor’s degrees. In addition, the percentages of new hires by degree level that make up the total hires in 2019-20 and 2018-19 are nearly identical.
Data for the Job Outlook 2020 survey were collected from August 1, 2019, through September 30, 2019. This year’s data collection not only surveyed 905 NACE employer members, but also 2,229 employer organizations that were nonmembers. A total of 150 surveys were returned; 115 were NACE members and the remaining 35 were nonmembers. The Job Outlook 2020 report is available free to members through MyNACE. Nonmembers can purchase the report through the NACE Store.
Figure 1: Hiring Expectations, by Degree Level
| Degree Level |
Average % of New College Hires in 2019-20 |
Number of Respondents Hiring in 2019-20 |
% of Total Respondents Hiring in 2019-20 |
Average % of New College Hires in 2018-19 |
Number of Respondents That Hired in 2018-19 |
% of Total Respondents That Hired in 2018-19 |
| Associate |
3.0% |
17 |
20.2% |
2.1% |
15 |
17.6% |
| Bachelor’s |
83.8% |
84 |
100.0% |
83.5% |
85 |
100.0% |
| Master’s |
11.7% |
63 |
75.0% |
12.9% |
68 |
80.0% |
| Doctorate |
1.1% |
18 |
21.4% |
1.2% |
18 |
21.2% |
| Professional (J.D., M.D., etc.) |
0.3% |
6 |
7.1% |
0.4% |
7 |
8.2% |
Source: Job Outlook 2020, National Association of Colleges and Employers