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Key Takeaways Employers plan to increase hiring of new graduates this spring, per The Wall Street Journal.
The outlook now is notably better than the gloomy expectations employers voiced in November surveys.
College graduates have faced a tough job market in recent years as tech companies scale back after pandemic-era overhiring and firms increasingly use AI to handle entry-level tasks.
The Class of 2026 is stepping into a hiring market that is slowly shifting in their favor.
Early signs suggest that entry-level hiring is starting to rebound after years of decline, per The Wall Street Journal. A closely watched survey released Monday by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) shows that companies plan to increase hiring of new graduates by 5.6% this spring compared to last year. This is a sharp reversal from November, when employers were bracing for a pullback, projecting flat or declining entry-level hiring amid economic uncertainty.
A recent survey from ZipRecruiter also found that over 30% of employers planned to hire more entry-level workers this year than in 2025.
Job prospects for college graduates have stalled in recent years, per the Journal. Many companies, particularly in tech, are still scaling back after pandemic-era overhiring. At the same time, the growing use of AI, which is capable of handling routine, entry-level work, has further slowed hiring.
Big firms are still hiring
Despite these factors, large firms like McKinsey and IBM have upped their entry-level hiring goals this year. McKinsey intends to increase hiring in North America by 12% this year and grow its number of entry-level hires, per Business Insider. AI will restructure some of the work McKinsey’s entry-level consultants perform, Blair Ciesil, a McKinsey partner leading global talent attraction at the firm, told the Journal.
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