Part 1: Michigan State University 51st Annual Recruiting Trends Survey & Report: Introduction, Summary, and Our Employers

This is the first of six articles in this series. If you’re searching for a remote internship, go to our search results page that lists all of the remote internships and other entry-level jobs advertised on College Recruiter and then drill down as you wish by adding your desired category, location, company, or job type.

INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic, a non-economic event, has accelerated trends already emerging throughout the workplace, specifically remote work, technological job displacement, and growing disparity between those with a college degree (post-K12) and those without. Various data sources relay conflicting impressions of the current labor market and workplace conditions. Recent monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) job reports show modest job growth even though employers posted more than 11 million jobs openings. Employers face challenges in obtaining and retaining talent never encountered before. Consider some of these snapshots of the economy and workplace:

• Individuals working remotely worked 48 minutes longer each day (Harvard Business School study) but enjoyed no daily commutes, saving them nearly $250 per month (This Week, October 8). Of course, employees spent more time in virtual meetings with Microsoft Teams reporting a 148% increase in the time spent in these meetings.
• “Take this job and shove it!” might be the mantra of the labor force today. In the second quarter of 2021 over 11.5 million American workers quit their jobs (Labor Department) with 3.9 million in June alone sending the quit rate from separations (not firings or retirements) soaring to 69% — an all-time high – that is until August when the rate went higher.
• While nearly 87% of workers would like to work remotely (LinkedIn poll), many managers do not trust approximately one-third of their remote workers with being productive while working remotely. The hybrid workplace that accommodates three days in the office per week (PricewaterhouseCoopers survey) and remote the other days receives support of most employees (Prudential poll).
• Currently the most remote friendly city is Columbus, Ohio (27% of business entirely remote), and the least remote city is Houston, Texas (2.8% of business entirely remote).
• During the pandemic 30% of workers younger than 40 have considered changing occupations or field of work compared to 20% for the overall workforce.
• Many groups have withstood the worst during the pandemic, especially health care and service workers. However, women have seen their careers severely disrupted. Approximately 4.2 million women left the workforce during the pandemic to care for children and are yet to return to the workplace. Daycare centers remain closed or understaffed, down more than 130,000 workers (this sector often pays near minimum wage). Since managers believe employees in the office outperform those at home, add the burden of constantly minding the kids, women face damaging long-term prospects. Evidence reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education points to the detriment of pandemic to women in research positions compared to men.
• Amazon now employs 11 out of every 153 U.S. workers.
• If you think college debt is bad, consider that 35% of Millennials have gone into debt to attend a bachelor/bachelorette party and 20% to attend a wedding.
• A Wall Street Journal report that buckles the knees finds median income of Black households with college degrees in their 30’s plummeted in inflation adjusted numbers from $50,500 in 1990 to $8,200 today. White households of the same demographic grew 17% to $138,000. Eighty-four percent of Black households carry student debt with individual loans averages = $23,000 (median = $44,000) compared to Whites $17,000. Black households carry more than two times the college debt as Whites.
• College gender gap widens with more men deciding not to attend college. Richard Reeves’ concern is that U.S. cannot sustain a strong labor market if male’s identity is at odds with education. Women continue to strive to obtain college degrees because the job options without a degree are awful. Men still dominate in engineering, technology and finance. MBA programs still slightly favor men, but this past year saw men fill over 60% of open MBA positions with women either out of work force or over looked because of working from home.
• TikTok now has one billion users or a 1,700% growth rate since January 2018. Facebook took 8.7 years and YouTube 8.1 years to achieve this same target. With Boomers taking over Facebook younger folks are migrating to other platforms.
• July 2021 was the hottest in 150 years of record keeping with a global average of 62.07 degrees. The last seven days of the month were the hottest ever recorded.

SUMMARY

The college labor market proves resilient with a strong rebound after the swoon last year due to COVID. Employers who sat out last year or lower hiring expectations in the face of uncertainty COVID projected into the economy return eager to hire. Their outlook for this year is the highest figure reported since the 2008 recession. A period of very robust job growth. Associate and bachelor hiring benefits by double digit growth with the focus on the 15% increase expected for bachelor’s talent.

The actual strength of the college labor market remains murky as many employers failed to report their hiring targets despite expressing a strong eagerness to recruit aggressively. The absence of hiring targets is particularly noticeable among larger employers. Depending on their final hiring decisions, large organizational hiring can increase more than 25%, as suggested by figures that large employers provided in the survey.

Responses fell lower as employers felt overwhelmed of clutter (emails, virtual sessions, notifications, for example) that accompanies virtual recruiting. Still, the sample for the 2021-22 Trends report captures information for various size organizations and across nineteen major NAIC industrial categories. Evidence suggests that all employers, regardless of size and sector, project increased hiring. Employers seek candidates across all majors though among this sample respondents emphasized their search for business and engineering candidates.

The weakness in outlook occurs at the master’s degrees and MBAs where hiring remains at last year’s levels. However, hiring for these groups varies across size and sector.

Despite the desire to return to at least some in-person events and interviewing, employers have realized significant cost savings from virtual recruiting, especially a more efficient use of recruiting staff and personnel from the organization that assist them. Virtual recruiting events, including interviews, remain plagued by poor student attendance and inadequate technology. Nevertheless, virtual recruiting is here to stay in some hybrid form. Students need to expect to encounter digital and AI assisted technologies as part of the recruiting process.

Despite some murmurings, the number of virtual interviews per job offered extended compares to the number of in-person interviews – about seven interviews per offer. Most employers expect new hires made during the COVID period to remain three to five years before seeking new opportunities.

Employers discussed the importance of candidates having a Zoom presence that entailed being aware of their environment that employers see behind them, being prepared for the interview, and showing interest in the opportunities at the organization. Employers expect students to shoulder more of the responsibility of managing their job search, especially arriving on time and not being a “no show.”

Overall, college students seeking full-time positions or internships/co-ops can expect opportunities to be plentiful this year

OUR EMPLOYERS

Fourteen percent indicated their sole responsibility centered on recruiting college graduates for full time positions. Fifty-three percent have responsibilities for both full-time positions and intern/co-op positions (early talent programs). Another six percent are solely responsible for intern or co-op recruiting, the lowest level since the recessionary period prior to 2010. Recruiters seeking experienced talent remained higher than normal at 15 percent – reflecting organizations seeing out experienced individuals. Those filling short-term assignments of six months or less account for five percent of the respondents.

NEARLY 50% OF RESPONDENTS INDICATE THAT THEY NOW RECRUIT THROUGHOUT THE
UNITED STATES.

In a noticeable shift, more employers indicated that they were taking advantage of digital opportunities to expand their reach for talent. As one recruiter offered in a comment, “Today, we can recruit students anywhere in the country. Though we still emphasize the regions where we have offices and facilities, we are accepting candidates regardless of geographic location.” The recruiting management systems that campuses utilize to support their students’ job search are now open to all students and employers, marking the growth of a more national college labor market. Nearly 90% of responding employers focus their recruiting at four-year public and private (not for profit) institutions. Forty-two percent also work with two-year community colleges and 34% look to for-profit institutions for talent. The number of employers seeking certificate or credentialed talent continues to grow in this survey – now at one-third of respondents. In last year’s survey many employers indicated that they would build connections with historical Black colleges and Hispanic and Asian serving institutions to achieve diversity goals. This year the number of organizations reaching out to these institutions inched up slightly to 38%.

— This is the first of six articles in this series. Click here to go to the next article. This series of articles is courtesy of Dr. Phil Gardner, Ph.D. Michigan State University Collegiate Employment Research Institute. To download the full report, go to https://ceri.msu.edu/_assets/pdfs/Recruiting%20Trends%202021-22/Recruiting-Trends-Report-2021-22.pdf