The percent of graduating seniors who participated in an internship is the highest that NACE has recorded in the past six years, according to results of NACE’s 2024 Student Survey.

More than two-thirds of 2024 graduating seniors engaged in an internship experience during their college career, up from around 61% of 2023 graduates and outpacing pre-pandemic 2019 graduates . (See Figure 1.)

But not all internships are equal: In the job search, paid interns outperformed graduates who undertook unpaid internships or didn’t do an internship.

As has consistently been the case over the last several years, on average, paid interns had more job offers pre-graduation than unpaid interns and non-interns. Furthermore, paid interns also enjoyed a higher average starting salary than unpaid interns and non-interns. (See Figure 2.)

More than half of interns—57%—reported they were paid for their internship. That’s down slightly from 2023, when 59% were paid, but the overall trend is toward paid internships. (See Figure 3.)

It is interesting to note that non-interns did better than unpaid interns. Most likely, the driver of this is major: Approximately one-third of those who self-identified as unpaid interns were public service majors, which is among the lowest-paid majors.

It’s no wonder that students recognize the value of internships. Internship experience is not only important in preparing students for the workplace, it is a key attribute that employers look for when considering candidates. Employers responding to NACE’s Job Outlook 2024 survey rate internship experience within their industry or their organization highly, and they made it clear that internship experience is the top factor they consider when deciding between two otherwise equally qualified candidates.

Internship experience may be critical, especially in a more competitive job market when overall hiring projections for the Class of 2024 were down 5.8% from last year.

NACE’s 2024 Student Survey, sponsored by Indeed, was conducted March 13 through May 15, 2024; a total of 20,482 college students took part, including 2,281 graduating seniors earning bachelor’s degrees. Participants can access the report and dashboard through MyNACE. The report and dashboard are also available in the NACE Store.