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Job Market For 2012: Cloudy, With A Chance of Sun

Things may be looking up for us after all. It’s a new year and that means new statistics and new hopes. Thankfully, experts have predicted a much better outlook for the year 2012 than that of last year’s.

A study conducted by the University of Michigan predicted that the unemployment rate will continue to drop and will reach a low of 8.8 percent by the end of next year. With the last recorded unemployment rate of 2011 falling at 8.6 percent in November, next year’s predictions don’t sound that great and certainly are not an improvement from where we are currently. It is important to keep in mind though that the end of the year saw a decrease in the unemployment rate due to seasonal hires and job searchers giving up their job search. The beginning of 2012 may mean an initial increase in the unemployment rate, but overall these experts are saying that 2012 will be a better year. Do they have the data to back up their predictions or is it just a feel-good tactic set to blind society’s eye to the weak, struggling market?

Whatever the answer, statistics for 2012 do look very promising for recent graduates. According to National Association of Colleges and Employers’ Job Outlook 2012 survey, employers plan on hiring 9.5 percent more graduates of 2012 than they did in 2011. Doubtless thousands of hopeful college students about to enter the workforce will rejoice at this prediction. Especially since recent graduates have been one of the groups hit the hardest by the weak market as they have to compete with more experienced workers for jobs that used to be exclusively for them.

This improvement in hired graduates is an improvement in and of itself. With more jobs opening up to these workers, there will be less competition for other positions. Another question that may be circulating about 2012 is, what are the best professions to break into? According to WTOP, biomedical engineering will be the industry that sees the most growth at 72 percent by the year 2018. That is a huge growth area. Biomedical engineering is made even sweeter with its average annual income of $82,421. Computer software engineering comes in second for growth and employees in this industry earn about $97,581 a year on average.

Whether you are set to be a college graduate in 2012 or have decided to take up biomedical engineering, 2012 looks as though it will be a better year than last. With each year comes new hopes and aspirations and we can only hope that most aimed towards a better job market will be answered. Experts seems to think they will.

SOURCE: WTOP
IMAGE: Interesting Engineering Facts

Nicole Nicholson

Nicole is the Content Editor for Spark Hire and mainly writes for and edits the work for the Spark News blog. She graduated in 2010 with a BA in Journalism from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. She has a passion for writing, editing, and pretty much anything to do with content. In her free time she frequents the Chicago music scene and writes reviews on shows for her own personal blog. Connect with Nicole and Spark Hire on Facebook and Twitter

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