College grads who emerge from their schooling ready to put nose to grindstone this year will find the labor environment a very agreeable one indeed.
After surveying some 260 businesses that regularly hire new college graduates, the National Association of Colleges and Employers reports that more employers are planning to offer top students signing bonuses than at any time in the last five years.
A survey released a year ago by the Graduate Management Admission Council found that employers were planning to offer newly minted MBAs higher starting salaries than in previous years. This latest report is yet more evidence that the scramble for new talent has escalated in the last year.
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According to the NACA survey, 51 percent of those who responded say they plan to offer signing bonuses to recent cap tossers. That's the first time the "planning to offer" response has exceeded 50 percent, NACA said.
Typically, the planning to offer response has been somewhat more conservative that what in fact happened when the hiring was done. In four of the last five years, the percent who actually paid them was higher than the planning report.
When NACA kicked off its annual Job Outlook Survey in 2009, about 41 percent said they would offer signing bonuses.
The planning-to-offer responses were far lower than reality in 2009, as the recession sunk its teeth into the global economy. When the hiring dust had settled that year, 50 percent had done so.
Typically, plan and action have been more closely aligned in this study. In 2010, 45.8 percent planned to offer bonuses; 46.1 did so. The same synchronization held true for 2012 and 2013. Only the 2011 survey showed a large rift: 45 percent planned to offer, and nearly 53 percent did so.
Last year, the percent planning to offer bonuses actually fell slightly from the prior year: 41 percent compared to 48.4 percent the prior year. The percent of those actually offering signing bonuses last year — 48.8 percent — was lower than two previous survey years (50 percent in 2009 and nearly 53 percent in 2011).
But not everyone with a hand out for a bonus will get one, NACE said. "Among the employers with plans to offer signing bonuses, almost two-thirds plan to offer them only to select bachelor's degree candidates. The selected majors that are most likely to receive signing bonuses are business, engineering and the computer science fields."
The largest signing bonuses reported were:
- Chemical engineering at $5,250.
- Engineering (type not specified) at $5,107.
- Computer science at $4,364.
The food and beverage industry showed the strongest inclination to offer signing bonuses this year.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
