Join/Renew
Reflecting an uncertain job market for college graduates, employers are projecting just a 1.6% increase in hiring for the Class of 2026 when compared to the Class of 2025, according to results of NACE’s Job Outlook 2026 survey.
That flat hiring projection is consistent with the tight labor market employers reported at the end of the 2024-25 recruiting year. (See Figure 1.)
These findings are also consistent with what NACE is seeing with general employment indicators at large. NACE found that employers are less positive about the overall job market for upcoming graduates this year than they were in last several years. Currently, a plurality of employers rate the overall job market for new graduates as "fair," compared to a year ago, when they characterized it as "good." (See Figure 2.)
Additionally, the vast majority of employers (60%) say that they will maintain hiring from last year, when the job market for college graduates was flat, with fewer increasing (25%) and less decreasing (15%) hiring.
However, there is good news as employers are taking a long view of the job market. Among employers that are increasing hiring, the main reasons for doing so are their commitment to succession planning/importance of their talent pipelines (72.7%) and company growth (68.2%). This is a strong indication they are not giving up on professional entry-level hiring or recent college graduates, and they are focused on the future of their organizations.
NACE collected data for its Job Outlook 2026 survey from August 7, 2025, through September 22, 2025. Of the 183 total respondents, 170 were NACE employer members, representing 22.7% of eligible member respondents. The Job Outlook 2026 survey was also distributed to nonmember companies; this group provided an additional 13 responses. Job Outlook 2026 is available on NACEWeb.
