Drexel Expert: Grads Face Good Job Market

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This year’s college graduates are emerging into one of the best job markets in a decade, a Drexel University expert tells the Boston Globe.

Today, about 1.5 unemployed workers compete for each job opening, compared with seven in June 2009, said Paul Harrington, director of the Center for Labor Markets and Policy at Drexel University in Philadelphia. The reason: The US economy has created some 2.5 million jobs in the past year alone.

“Almost all the net increase in jobs is in these jobs that require a college degree,” Harrington said. “Kids coming out of college are going to have a pretty good year.”

Demand is strong for business, finance, and health-care-related majors, Harrington said, but as usual, the most sought-after graduates hold degrees in so-called STEM fields: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Of the 2.5 million jobs added in the past year, one in four were in engineering, computer science, and science-related professions, the Labor Department says.

Joblessness among young people with college degrees is now about 7 percent — down from 9 percent in 2010.