CEO A. Harrison Barnes of Hound says “Having a college degree still seems to pay off and students majoring in engineering are in a good position next year.”

Pasadena, CA -- (SBWire) -- 11/29/2010 -- College graduates across the country and across most majors are expected to see better job prospects when they graduate in May 2011.

This optimistic prediction comes from the Recruiting Trends 2010-2011 survey prepared by researchers at Michigan State University. The university’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute released the report on November 17. The hiring increase is expected because of hiring by around 350 to 400 large companies. Fast growing smaller companies in some industries will also be recruiting more graduates.

College graduates majoring in business, information technology and computer science are better placed at getting these jobs than other majors. This is because the firms going to be hiring are in the professional and scientific services, financial institutions and the federal government. The report included a survey of 4,600 employers and it showed that 72 percent of the new positions will be filled with people having at least a bachelor’s degree. One-third of the employers said they had definite plans for hiring graduates.

Another report released on November 18 by the National Association of Colleges and Employers projects a similar positive scenario for 2011 graduates. In its survey of 172 respondents, 62 percent said they had plans for hiring graduates next year. Their preferences were for accounting majors followed by those in finance. Electrical engineering and mechanical engineering graduates were next, followed by business administration and management graduates.

CEO A. Harrison Barnes of Hound says that this data shows that jobs requiring a college education are still available. “Having a college degree still seems to pay off and students majoring in engineering are in a good position next year.” Barnes’ job search engine, Hound, has been able to find 693,000 jobs.