\n<\/p>\n
A quarter of employers said they plan to increase the number of hires, primarily citing a commitment to succession planning and the talent pipeline.<\/p>\n
fizkes\/iStock\/Getty Images Plus<\/p>\n
Forty-five\u00a0percent of employers consider the job market to be \u201cfair,\u201d and they are projecting a 1.6\u00a0percent year-over-year increase in hiring for the Class of 2026, according to a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. <\/p>\n
The last time a plurality of employers gave the job market a \u201cfair\u201d rating was in 2021, when hiring projections were also flat. During the four interim years, most employers rated the job market as \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cvery good,\u201d the report shows.<\/p>\n
About 60\u00a0percent of the 183 employers NACE polled for the 2026 Job Outlook Survey said they are planning to keep the number of people they hire stable next year. A quarter of employers said they plan to increase the number of hires, primarily citing a commitment to succession planning and the talent pipeline, as well as company growth, as key reasons. The top five industries for projected hiring growth are miscellaneous professional services; engineering services; construction; finance, insurance and real estate; and management consulting.<\/p>\n
About 14\u00a0percent of employers said they plan to decrease the number of people they hire next year, citing reductions in business needs and projects, an uncertain economy and budget cuts. These employers are primarily concentrated in the chemical pharmaceutical manufacturing, transportation, wholesale trade, food and beverage manufacturing, and miscellaneous manufacturing industries. <\/p>\n
NACE surveyed employers between Aug. 7 and Sept. 22 of this year for their thoughts on the job market, hiring trends and salaries. About 40\u00a0percent of employers plan to increase salaries for bachelor\u2019s degree holders in 2026, and 28.3\u00a0percent will do the same for master\u2019s degree holders. No employers reported plans to decrease salaries for either group next year, the report states.<\/p>\n
Skills-based hiring remains popular\u201469.5\u00a0percent of employers reported they use the approach. Asked how students can best prepare for a skills-based hiring process, employers primarily said applicants should \u201cprepare for interviews that demonstrate their skills,\u201d \u201cparticipate in experiential learning or work during college\u201d and \u201ctranslate college coursework into a skills language.\u201d <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, fewer employers care about applicants\u2019 GPAs\u2014only 42.1\u00a0percent of employers plan to screen GPAs in 2026, compared with 73.3\u00a0percent in 2019. Academic majors, industry experience and internships, and internships at the employer\u2019s organization are top decision-making factors for employers that don\u2019t screen for GPAs. <\/p>\n
Artificial intelligence is also top of mind, but many employers are still figuring out exactly how AI will integrate into their business, said Christine Cruzvergara, chief education strategy officer at the job and internship platform Handshake. NACE data reflects a similar sentiment toward AI among employers\u2014nearly 59\u00a0percent said they are not planning to or unsure whether they\u2019ll augment entry-level jobs with AI, and 25\u00a0percent said they\u2019re currently discussing it. About 13\u00a0percent of jobs require AI skills, the report shows, and 10.5\u00a0percent of entry-level jobs include AI in their descriptions. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think the majority of employers are still experimenting with how AI will supplement or augment the work that their employees are doing from entry level all the way to more senior folks,\u201d Cruzvergara said. \u201cAnd I think some functions have probably already started to figure that out a little bit more, like in some of the technical roles, or marketing is another big one, versus customer success or some of the other types of roles that people have. It\u2019s a varied spectrum that you\u2019re seeing at the moment.\u201d <\/p>\n
The\u00a0percentage of fully hybrid jobs has declined since spring 2025, from 47\u00a0percent to 42\u00a0percent, while the\u00a0percentage of fully in-person jobs increased from 43\u00a0percent to 48\u00a0percent, the report shows. The\u00a0percentage of fully remote jobs has held steady at 10\u00a0percent. More entry-level jobs are fully in-person\u201450\u00a0percent\u2014and fewer are fully remote, 6\u00a0percent. <\/p>\n
Ashley Mowreader contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A quarter of employers said they plan to increase the number of hires, primarily citing a commitment to succession planning and the talent pipeline. fizkes\/iStock\/Getty Images Plus Forty-five\u00a0percent of employers consider the job market to be \u201cfair,\u201d and they are projecting a 1.6\u00a0percent year-over-year increase in hiring for the Class of 2026, according to a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[2773,13334,3509],"class_list":{"0":"post-34249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-flat","9":"tag-grads","10":"tag-hiring"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}