[00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English
[00:03.54]Education Report.
[00:05.22]In America,
[00:06.70]May and June are the traditional months
[00:10.70]for graduations.
[00:12.33]A listener in China,
[00:14.44]Jack Hoo from Jiangsu province,
[00:17.77]wants to know
[00:18.96]how American college graduates find jobs.
[00:23.41]Right now the answer is: not very easily.
[00:28.21]The National Association of Colleges
[00:31.38]and Employers collects information
[00:34.44]on the college job market.
[00:36.97]NACE's latest survey in March
[00:40.63]found that employers expected
[00:43.51]to hire twenty-two percent fewer graduates
[00:47.98]this year than last.
[00:49.86]Most blamed the recession.
[00:52.82]The most recent student survey showed
[00:56.22]that just one-fifth of those
[00:58.47]who looked for jobs
[00:59.97]before graduation have one by now.
[01:04.05]This is compared to half of students
[01:07.79]who had looked for a job by this time
[01:10.63]two years ago.
[01:12.25]But one difference:
[01:14.20]fewer of this year's graduates
[01:17.07]have started to search for jobs.
[01:19.46]Still,NACE found no big increase in graduates
[01:24.75]who plan to stay in school
[01:27.08]and avoid the job market.
[01:29.20]About twenty-seven percent said
[01:32.74]they plan to go to graduate school,
[01:35.55]compared to about
[01:37.11]twenty-four percent a year ago.
[01:39.86]Engineering and accounting graduates
[01:43.78]were more likely to have started
[01:46.05]their job search already
[01:48.22]and to have accepted a job.
[01:51.24]These are among the best paid professions
[01:55.40]for people with just a college degree.
[01:58.70]On average,
[02:00.52]engineering majors expect to start
[02:03.07]at about sixty-two thousand dollars a year.
[02:07.27]Accounting majors expect
[02:10.06]about forty-five thousand.
[02:12.36]So how can students increase
[02:15.83]their chances for a job?
[02:17.92]Mimi Collins at NACE says
[02:21.04]the most effective tool is a school's
[02:24.22]career counseling center.
[02:26.71]Counselors can help students
[02:29.66]with job applications
[02:31.64]and preparing for interviews.
[02:34.45]They also let students know
[02:37.64]about job openings and events
[02:40.80]like job recruitment fairs.
[02:43.41]They can also help first-year students
[02:47.27]decide what to study.
[02:49.41]Another way to look for a job
[02:52.71]is to do an internship.
[02:55.26]This is when a student gets experience
[02:58.06]in a position that may or may not be paid.
[03:02.10]The latest NACE survey found
[03:05.29]that seventy-three percent of graduates
[03:08.90]who did get jobs had completed an internship.
[03:13.07]The group reported in March
[03:16.67]that employers expected to increase
[03:19.70]hourly wage offers for college interns
[03:23.77]by five percent from last year.
[03:27.14]But,because of the economy,
[03:29.82]employers reduced the number of internships
[03:34.11]available by twenty-one percent.
[03:37.43]And that's the VOA Special English
[03:41.52]Education Report,
[03:43.01]written by Nancy Steinbach.
[03:45.16]You can find our Foreign Student Series
[03:48.58]on studying in the United States
[03:50.89]at www.51voa.com.
[03:54.90]I'm Steve Ember.