Employers say they also expect to face more competition to hire new college graduates than last year. As a result, 2007 graduates can expect starting salary offers 4.6 percent higher than last year, the report found. Kutsmode, of Capital H Group, says many of the company’s clients intend to beef up their hiring of college graduates for jobs they would have never considered filling with newbies in the past. “They’ve heard the buzz about the coming talent shortage with Baby Boomers retiring,” he says.

A telling sign is that graduates are expected to be ready for leadership positions, including responsibilities for which they would never before have been considered. Indeed, a graduate’s experience in leadership positions was just as important as a student’s major in employers’ hiring decisions, according to the report by the Bethlehem, Penn.-based NACE. The survey was conducted from mid-August through Oct. 4, 2006, and had a 23.6 percent response rate from 1,137 employers.

Chicago Sun Times, By Sandra Guy

The Class of 2007 is benefiting from the first wave of Baby Boomers’ retirements, hiring experts say. “There are more people exiting the workforce than entering, yet more jobs are being created,” says Carl Kutsmode, a principal in the recruiting solutions practice of Capital H Group, a consulting firm based in Chicago.

One result is a projected 17.4 percent increase in the number of new college graduates that employers will hire this year compared with 2006, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ (NACE) Job Outlook 2007 report. That would make this the best job market since 2000-2001, according to NACE. Overall, 52 percent of employers who responded to NACE’s survey expect to hire more new college graduates than last year.