Top 100 Employers for the Class of 2011

Published on Wednesday, 09 March 2011 23:52

By Diversity Employers

And Jobs in Demand by Major

Seniors graduating in the last couple of years have had the lousy luck to enter the worst job market in decades. After working hard to get into and through college, many newly minted degree-holders found themselves either in employment outside their interests or, worse, unable to find a job at all.

But with a fragile economic recovery underway, this year saw an uptick in hiring during the first four months of the school year, leading to at least a “spark of hope that a more resilient labor market is in the offing,” according to Dr. Philip Gardner, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University. The Institute’s Recruiting Trends college hiring study, based on responses from over 4,700 employers, projected a 10 percent expansion in the opportunities overall this year.

And indeed, these projections were borne out by the results of our own Top 100 Employers Survey, which employers projecting a greater number of jobs out there for the class of 2011, especially at the bachelor’s hiring level.

Be warned, however, that your job search will be no walk in the park. In fact, competition could be much stiffer for those just starting a search in spring than for those who launched job searches early in the fall.

And while there’s some good news in these findings, the study also finds that employers’ optimism remains cautious at best.

The surveyed employers reported being generally optimistic about labor market activity and planning to hire people with college degrees. At the same time, they reported a high degree of uncertainty about the extent of their hiring plans and timelines.

In this issue, President Barack Obama has outlined his plans for economic recovery and jobs growth and for helping unemployed job seekers and employers alike. However, it is clear that employers’ comfort level with the direction of the economic recovery will significantly affect their planning and commitment to hire. The extent to which opportunities for new graduates continue to open up will depend on when employers feel confident that the recovery will take root and be strengthened.

In so uncertain a jobs climate, you need to be 1) prepared and 2) proactive. How? Start the job search early, strategically using all resources at your disposal – from your career center to the Web to your family – and be flexible enough to maximize every opportunity to get your foot in the door, even if it is not on a traditional career path.

The employers listed on the following pages have provided the valuable information for your job search. Here you have some of the best employers in America – and even worldwide. These employers want to recruit a diverse workforce, and they want you to check out their employment opportunities, especially those employers that are also supporting this new magazine as advertisers. First, find your major in the “Top 100 Employers by Major” and review the list of employers recruiting in your major. Then, read their ads in this issue. Go to their website to explore their career opportunities and diversity initiatives.

The Top 100 Employers list gives you a wealth of valuable information. For example, Verizon Wireless and Enterprise Rent-A-Car are hiring more than 8,000. Also reporting strong hiring plans are major accounting firms such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and Grant Thornton. In the government sector, employers such as the State Department and NSA are hiring, as are several large school systems from the South and Midwest to the Northeast. While the overall number of jobs at the master’s level are down, those at the bachelor’s level increased significantly this year. Opportunities for accounting and business/management majors appear to be on the incline this year, as well as IS/IT and Engineering.

The list of the “Top 100 Employers” and the list of the “Additional Top Employers” for the class of 2010 should be an excellent and encouraging starting point for your job search. Find additional jobs, employer information, and career advice through our online careers network at DiversityEmployers.com, IMDiversity.com, DiversityRegistry.com and BlackCollegian.com.

Good luck!

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