North Texas Daily

Linda Kessler | Copy Editor

@LindaKessler

The number of students who landed jobs after graduation decreased by less than 2 percent last year, according to the Career Center.

In addition, 75.3 percent of students were either employed or going to graduate school last year, which is a 1.7 percent decrease from the 77 percent the year before. These statistics were reported by graduating seniors from 2014 and 2015.

For 2015, 946 students reported to the Career Center, compared to 612 the prior year. Of those 946, 604 were employed and 109 had plans to go to graduate school, compared to 402 employed and 69 continuing their education the year before.

“I would consider that decrease noise in the data,” UNT President Neal Smatresk said.

He added that if the trend continues, the university will begin to investigate probable causes. The overall pressure on getting students employed upon graduation is a priority for UNT, or, as Smatresk said, “a campus-wide commitment.”

There are things UNT can and cannot control regarding helping its students find employment upon graduation. The university doesn’t control job market employment opportunities, only how educated and real-world ready the students are upon graduation.

Executive director of Career and Leadership Development Dan Naegeli said the decline could be caused by a multitude of factors.

He said this year, 50 percent more graduates reported their employment status to the Career Center and the response of those going to graduate school increased by 0.2 percent.

Additionally, Naegeli said the job market can have an impact on student employment when they begin to look for opportunities.

“If it’s a good job market, students might not think they need to start as early to find a job, but even though the market is good there’s a lot of competition out there,” Naegeli said. “We do check to see when people started their job search, and this past year on average they started a bit later than the year before.”

Naegeli said administrators, including him, are not alarmed by the decline.

If it were a larger decrease, the issue would be more pertinent to university operations, but Naegeli said it’s something he and his colleagues will monitor closely.

“We’re seeing more companies coming to campus to recruit. We’re seeing more companies interviewing and we’re seeing more jobs posted,” Naegeli said. “So I’m not really sure what would otherwise contribute to the slight decrease.”

Though the change may be considered slight, it’s not something to be ignored.

Smatresk said the biggest thing the university can do is expend its network through increasing business relations and utilizing the alumni network.

Smatresk said the old trend of simply sending your child to college to get an education is going away. He said it’s beneficial for students to build professional development skills at the same time in addition to getting an education. They’re complimentary now.

“I think it’s everybody’s job here to help students find that next stage in their life, it’s critical,” Naegeli said. “You don’t want to go to college for four years, walk out of here and say, ‘Well I don’t have a job now.’”

In order to aid students in finding employment, the Career Center hosts a multitude of career fairs each semester for industries like business, education, government nonprofit, engineering and technology. It also holds resume and interview workshops and hosts company interviews.

“We had 161 companies on campus interviewing students for full-time positions over the last year,” Naegeli said.

Naegeli said he talks to a lot of students who say they don’t have time to look for a job, but it’s something they should be focusing on.

He added that three months out from graduating in 2014, 7.7 percent of students who replied about their employment had yet to start looking for a job, and 10.7 percent waited until after graduation.

“Well, you’re not going to get a job if you don’t start looking for one,” Naegeli said.