In positive news for the Class of 2026, nearly 87% of employers responding to NACE’s Job Outlook 2025 Spring Update survey said their organization will be actively recruiting for both full-time and internship positions in fall of 2025.

Rounding out the responses, 8.3% of employers said they would be recruiting only interns and co-ops this fall, while 4.8% said they would be recruiting only to fill full-time positions.

The 86.9% that indicated they will be recruiting for both full-time and internship positions in fall of 2025 is up from 84.7% in the Job Outlook 2024 Spring Update.

On the other end, zero employers said they wouldn’t be hiring at all during the 2025-26 academic year, down from the 1.4% that reported they wouldn’t be hiring during the 2024-25 academic year.

The Job Outlook 2025 Spring Update survey was conducted from February 18 – March 21, 2025. Of the 216 total respondents, 176 were NACE employer members, representing 22.2% of eligible member respondents. The Job Outlook 2025 Spring Update survey was also distributed to nonmember companies; this group provided an additional 40 responses. The survey updates hiring projections for the Class of 2025; those projections were collected from NACE employer members from August 5 – September 16, 2024, and were reported in Job Outlook 2025, which was published in November 2024. The Job Outlook 2025 Spring Update is available on NACEWeb.