Germain has a job lined up — with benefits — even before graduation and in her chosen field of developmental psychology.
Though the competition will be stiff — this year’s graduates will have to compete, in many cases, with 2020 graduates who are still seeking their first full-time job — employers are ramping up hiring.
On Friday, the government reported that employers added just 266,000 jobs in April, a surprisingly sharp slowdown from the 770,000 that were added in March.
Hershbein said he worries, though, that the pandemic will dim the economic prospects of young adults who were unable to complete, or even start, their educations during the pandemic.
Graduating into a recession has historically led to poor outcomes for many young people, with research showing that they sometimes bear long-running scars.
The sectors of the economy that face the most difficulty in regaining all their lost jobs are the service sectors that were hit hardest by the pandemic recession: Restaurants, bars, hotels, gyms, and entertainment venues.
Sheila Jordan, chief digital technology office at Honeywell, said she’s recruiting more students and recent graduates for paid internships than she did last year — internships that often lead to permanent jobs.
Lucius Giannini, who graduated last summer from the University of California San Diego with a degree in political science and public policy, had hoped to find work with the Peace Corps or teaching English overseas.
Dominique Davis, a senior at Tennessee State University, interned with Toyota last summer from her family home in Danville, Illinois.
“I think I networked even more this term than being in the building,” she said.
Museums have been clobbered over the past year.