Expanding workforce greets new grads.

• Position: Job Market

THE NEARLY 1,400,000 college students graduating this spring will find the strongest entry-level job market in over three years, as employers attempt to rebuild bench strength following a period of record downsizing that slashed more than 4,000,000 workers from payrolls. Graduates across a broad range of fields will enjoy the benefits of a job market recovery that has added 2,200,000 positions over the last 12 months. Business grads are likely to fare the best, particularly those specializing in operations management, accounting, marketing, and economics/finance, according to the annual "Spring Graduate Job Market Outlook" released by the global outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., Chicago.

Other areas expected to be fruitful include education, health care, engineering, information technology, and computer science.

Moreover, the confidence of entry-level job seekers should be bolstered by the latest Job Market Index, which indicates a sharp decline in the length of time it takes jobless managers and executives to find new positions. The survey shows the median job search time falling from four months to 3.3.

"Graduates should also be emboldened by the fact that the unemployment rate among those holding a bachelor's degree and higher fell to 2.4% in January, which is the lowest this figure has been since August, 2001," says John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, citing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Several other surveys point to an improving market for graduates. The National Association of Colleges and Employers found that employers plan to increase the number of new college graduates hired in the 2004-05 academic year by 13.1%. In a follow-up survey, 62.5% of employers stayed with their original projection while 25% said they anticipated hiring more than they originally thought. Meanwhile, among the top 500 entry-level employers in 2005, ranked by the online job search site CollegeGrad.com, hiring is up 14.2% over 2004.

Vying for the increased number of positions are the 1,352,000 college students expected to obtain bachelor's degrees in the 2004-05 academic year, reports the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. Meanwhile, another 578,000 should be obtaining master's degrees.

If history is any indication, the largest number of bachelor's and a significant number of master's will be awarded in the area of business. In 2002, the last year for...