Career Services Director: High Hopes for UNC 2014 Grads

UNC campus

Nearly six thousand UNC students got their degrees at Kenan Stadium last Sunday, and they all probably hold high hopes for their futures.

Director of University Career Services Ray Angle says they have reason to feel that way. He says that graduates of UNC typically do very well out in the real world.

“About 25 percent of them end up going to graduate school,” he says. “And I would say closer to 60 percent of them are employed within six months of graduation.”

Angle says the unemployment rate for students coming out of UNC over the last couple of years has been between seven and nine percent.

That may sound high, but it’s better than the national average. The Labor Department announced in April that the national unemployment rate for recent college grads in 2013 was 10-point-9 percent.

That’s down from 13-point-3 percent in 2012, which is a little worse than UNC’s bad year in 2011.

“Class of 2011 may have been one of our toughest years,” says Angle, “with a 12 percent unemployment rate.”

Last year, based on a 39 percent response rate from recent graduates, a survey showed that a little more then 50 percent of UNC grads had stayed in North Carolina to work.

Other popular job markets for UNC graduates include: New York; Washington DC; Atlanta; Charlotte; and Raleigh.

Angle names a few of the top fields where students are having success lately in finding jobs.

“Anything in business – you know, banking, consulting, finance – those are strong occupations,” says Angle. “Anything in health services, and in education seem to be fairly strong. Those are fairly stable over a long period of time.”