Growth is slow but steady in job markets for Class of 2018 SU graduates

Class of 2018 Syracuse University graduates in various industries will be entering job markets that are generally growing slowly, university Career Services staff said.

About 87 percent of employers that participated in Michigan State University’s 47th annual Recruiting Trends report described the overall college labor market as “good” to “excellent,” a slight increase from previous years.

Stacey Wiley, director of career services in SU’s College of Law, said job growth in the law industry has been increasing at a rate of about 3 to 4 percent. That statistic reflects national economic growth, she added.

“It’s kind of just very slow and steady, almost a little bit more than maintaining what it has been in the past,” Wiley said. Law students are still getting hired, but it takes time to find jobs, she said.

Wiley added that students are finding jobs in a broader range of industries and settings. While some law schools focus on sending students to large law firms, Wiley said College of Law graduates end up working at traditional law firms, public interest organizations, government agencies and at in-house counsel positions at companies like Google and Microsoft, among other places.

Kelly Barnett, director of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications’ Career Development Center, also said employment opportunities in the communications industry are growing — but slowly. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, Barnett said.

“We’d much rather see slow and steady (growth) than a big spike,” she said. Growth spikes, she said, indicate less stability. Job opportunities for Newhouse students have been consistently growing since about 2009, Barnett added.

Brenda Hoefler-Kline, coordinator of career services and certification in the School of Education, said in an email that a national teacher shortage has created job opportunities for graduates. Experiential learning requirements, such as internships and field experiences, have helped School of Education graduates stand out to graduate schools and employers, she added.

Susan Call, assistant director of career services in the School of Architecture, said architecture graduates are in a “great position” entering the job market. There’s a shortage of architects in the industry, she said, so graduates are “definitely in the driver’s seat.”

Of the Class of 2017 architecture graduates, about one-third had accepted a job before graduation, Call said. One-third received a job offer within three months of graduation, she added, and another one-third were hired within six months of graduating.

Call said School of Architecture graduates primarily end up in New York City, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Boston. But not all students end up in major metropolitan areas, she added.

“There are positions in every town and every state,” Call said. “It’s a great market.”

New York City is a hub for Newhouse graduates, Barnett said. Students entering the entertainment industry also find jobs in Los Angeles, she added. Similar to architecture graduates, communications majors are able to apply skills to jobs everywhere in the country, Barnett said.

Barnett said students don’t need to worry if they haven’t been hired by graduation. She said students should spend that time building relationships and networking.

“It’s not a race, and it’s not a competition, even though it may feel that way,” Barnett said. “If you put your efforts into the right things, it’s just a matter of time before you have a job.”

—Design Editor Casey Darnell contributed reporting to this article.