Recruiting Trends 2017-2018 - Brief 2 - Hiring Outlook by Industry Sector and Geographic Region

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jacob

Hiring Outlook by Industry Sector and Geographic Region is presented as Brief 2 within Recruiting Trends 2017-18, summarizing key findings about employer recruiting patterns. The brief explains that employer information is collected from nearly 3,370 organizations actively seeking college talent through career service offices nationwide. It reports distribution by organization size and recruiting activity by region, then links hiring roles to full-time, internship/co-op, short-term, and experienced hiring. It further analyzes sector-based challenges, including candidates’ soft-skill gaps, technical-skill shortages, limited work experience, certification delays, small candidate pools, and competition from other employers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Hiring Outlook by Industry Sector and Geographic Region

Meet the Completers

Survey Respondents by Organization Size

Active Recruiting by Region

Role in College Recruiting

Key States

Institutions Where Companies Recruit Talent

Key Economic Sectors

Challenges Faced by Industry Sector

RECRUITING TRENDS 2017-18 47th Edition BRIEF 2 Hiring Outlook by Industry Sector and Geographic Region Key findings from 2017-18 arepresented in this research brief. We have broken the release of employer information into a series of short briefs that will be made available over the next six weeks. You can download the briefs from the Collegiate Employment Research Institute. Recruiting Trends 2017—2018 is published by Career Services and the Collegiate Employment Research Institute and copyrighted, © 2017-2018, by Michigan State University. All rights reserved. This electronic version is for individual use only. No part of this electronic report may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without written permission from the Institute. Users are not permitted to mount this file on any network servers or distribute this report by email without written permission from the Institute. Material from this report can be used in classrooms and newsletters with proper citation of Michigan State University and the Collegiate Employment Research Institute. Meet the Completers We generated this convenience sample from employers currently seeking college talent through their interactions with college and university career services offices. Nearly 200 career service centers from around the country invited their employers to participate in this study. Approximately 3,370 employers provided information useful for understanding recruiting trends and practices. We will use information provided by those recruiting talent for full-time positions, internships, and co-ops for these research briefs. Readers can use the following key sample characteristics to determine how applicable our survey results are for their campus employer base. Survey respondents by organization size Very small Small Midsize Large Very large < 49 employees 50-499 employees 500-3,999 employees 4,000-24,999 employees> 25,000 employees 27% 37% 20% 9% 6% Active Recruiting by Region International 8% Entire U.S. 32% Regional recruiting only 60% Role in College Recruiting Full-time positions 71% Internship or co-op positions only 12% Short-term hiring 7% Experienced hiring 10% Key States Michigan 16% Utah 7% Illinois 6% Massachusetts 6% New York 6% Institutions Where Companies Recruit Talent Two-year public college 31% Four-year public college 53% Four-year private college 43% Two- & four-year for-profit institution 24% Institution with bachelor’s & advanced degree 72% programs Institution with advanced degrees only 11% Historically black college & university 19% Hispanic-serving institution 17% Asian, Asian-Pacific serving institutions 16% Key Economic Sectors Professional, business & scientific services 19% Manufacturing 12% Educational services 11% Finance & insurance services 8% Government 7% Healthcare & social assistance 8% Nonprofits 8% ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Recruiting Trends 2017-18 is made possible by the efforts of many dedicated and generous colleagues, friends of the institute, and corporate sponsors. We thank all the colleges and universities who encouraged local, regional, and national organizations to participate in our survey and for their confidence in our contribution to research on college recruiting. We also thank our editor, Stephanie Schlick. We extend special appreciation to several people whose special insights contribute to CERI’s research activities: Jeff Beavers (University of Illinois), Duncan Ferguson (Managing Director, Vantage Leadership Consulting), and James Spohrer (IBM Almaden Research Center). Brief 2: Hiring by Sector & Region The data in this brief present two aspects of the new college labor market. By classifying each organization by its primary North American Industrial Classification (NAIC) code, organizations are aggregated in similar ind

FAQs

How many employers and career service centers contributed to the recruiting trends data?

Nearly 200 career service centers invited employers to participate, with approximately 3,370 employers providing information for understanding recruiting trends and practices.

What hiring roles do employers most frequently recruit for?

Full-time positions account for 71% of recruiting roles, while internship or co-op positions account for 12%, short-term hiring for 7%, and experienced hiring for 10%.

Which recruiting challenges are most commonly reported across sectors?

Most sectors agree that candidates lack soft skills, work experience, and interest in the job offered. Competition from other employers also reduces the candidate pool.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jacob