Spotlight for Career Services Professionals
Spotlight for Recruiting Professionals

This year’s intern offer rate is the highest it has been since the peak of the pre-recession market, but the corresponding acceptance rate still remains well above pre-recession levels, according to results of NACE’s 2016 Internship & Co-op Survey.

This is important because, from the employer perspective, higher offer rates and lower acceptance rates generally are indicators of a more robust college hiring market. Current results suggest that while employers are responding to a growing economy, students are still wary about turning down an offer.

This year’s intern offer rate—72.7 percent—is the highest it has been since the peak of the pre-recession market (2006), although the corresponding acceptance rate—85.2 percent—still remains well above pre-recession levels.

In turn, these two figures yielded a conversion rate of 61.9 percent, a 13-year high. (See Figure 1.)

Altogether, these longitudinal observations suggest that employers’ internship programs are focusing on smaller, more selectively recruited cohorts of interns who, in turn, have a more fluid path toward conversion.

NACE’s 2016 Internship & Co-op Survey was conducted from November 9, 2015, to February 17, 2016, among NACE employer members; 271, or 26.9 percent, responded. The survey report will be available later this spring.

Figure 1: Internship conversion: 2004-2016