Release date: May 10, 2006
Contact: Beverly Cox Clark at 404-712-8780 or beverly.clark@emory.edu

Job Market Looks Bright for Emory Class of 2006

The Class of 2006 entered college in the midst of a flagging economy, but as they prepare to enter the workforce, students are finding one of the best job markets in years. Emory University career placement experts say job opportunities and offers are in abundance for savvy soon-to-be graduates.

Tariq Shakoor, director of Emory's Career Center, says this has been a remarkable recruiting season. The increase in jobs and recruitment builds on the strong success of 2004-2005, which saw a leap of 45 percent in recruitment activity from the previous year. The center's Spring Career Fair was largest ever with more than 60 employers and 650 students.

"On campus recruiting has been excellent – this has by far been the best year since the late 1990s for hiring opportunities," Shakoor says. "We've been very encouraged by widespread hiring in all sectors – financial services, banking, management consulting, advertising, retail, government and nonprofit." While corporations and businesses of all sizes have recruited students, the top single employer from the past three years is Teach for America, which has attracted students from a broad range of majors – a trend across the nation, he says.

Douglas Cooper, director of the Career Management Center at Emory's Goizueta Business School, says undergraduate business students have seen a strong hiring season, with a similar number of hires as last year, but with a five to 10 percent increase in salary offers. Students are finding jobs across a spectrum of financial services as well as in management consulting, corporate finance, retail management and marketing.

"Demand for students in areas such as finance, accounting and consulting remains strong; however employers are scrutinizing students' ability to demonstrate hard skills in areas of problem solving, finance and accounting. The ability to communicate in verbal and written format remains key as well," Cooper says.

Graduates of Emory's Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing are entering "a workforce where they are desperately needed," says Amy Comeau, communications director for the school. With a national shortage of nurses only increasing, nursing school graduates are finding ample job opportunities, she says.

Newly minted doctors from Emory's School of Medicine will head out to residencies across the country. Following trends from past years, 40 percent of the graduating class of 110 chose primary care specialties, about a quarter will go into internal medicine, and 10 percent into pediatrics. Other areas include family practice, gynecology/obstetrics, general surgery, psychiatry, emergency medicine and diagnostic radiology. Thirty-five students will remain in Georgia and will train at Emory and others will enter residencies in 26 other states.

Graduates of the Rollins School of Public Health are finding high demand for their skills across a broad sector employers, including research institutes, government organizations, health care corporations and nonprofits. Hiring is better then usual, and many talented students are able to parlay their required internships into jobs months before they graduate, says Claudia Ellett, director of career services.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

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