EAST LANSING, Mich. – Job growth for college graduates is poised to expand between 6 and 14 percent for 2005-06, based on information provided by 878 employers who responded to the 35^th annual “Recruiting Trends” survey conducted by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University.

This growth follows a “robust” 20 percent increase in hiring reported last year.

“There are basically two hiring camps this year,” said Phil Gardner, director of the institute and author of the report. “The first includes companies that are going to hire aggressively, about 41 percent. The second camp is the employers whose intentions remain uncertain, or about 51 percent of the respondents.”

Several factors, including the auto industry, Hurricane Katrina and regional hiring patterns, will affect this year’s collegiate job market, he said.

Hiring figures could go even higher depending on how Michigan-based companies handle adjustments in the manufacturing sector and on the impact of the Gulf Coast hurricane recovery, Gardner said.

“While employers still want business and engineering graduates, employers who are seeking to fill consulting, research information, management and e-commerce positions want to talk to all majors,” he said, “particularly liberal arts graduates who know how to do research.”

Employers are looking for all majors to fill any number of positions, including sales and marketing jobs. Other hot majors are accounting, nursing, and civil and environmental engineering. Salary gains are modest – 2 to 3 percent higher than last year.

Finance, professional and scientific services, and administrative services sectors are expected to show the strongest gains in employment, while manufacturing, information services, education, health services and nonprofit organizations will lower their hiring rates.

“The Northeast, Southwest and Northwest are enjoying especially strong labor markets, with Boston, California, and coastal Oregon and Washington recovering from several years of sluggish markets,” Gardner said. “The Southeast region remains guardedly optimistic after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The oil, energy and chemical manufacturing sectors are generating jobs that should spread confidence to other sectors within this region.”

What are today’s college graduates seeking in their job search? Interesting work, chances for promotion and opportunities to learn rank among the top 15 characteristics frequently cited by graduating students.

“In turn, employers still are looking for students who are better-educated, ambitious, team players, technically adept, able to seek a balance in their lives and highly confident,” Gardner said.

The Collegiate Employment Research Institute joined with MonsterTrak and Experience, employment service providers used by colleges and universities to assist in their job placement functions to get a better mix of employers.

Gardner will be presenting his research report at the 12^th annual fall “Trends in Recruiting” conference of the Midwest Association of Colleges and Employers Nov. 18-19 in Chicago.