Jobs plentiful for new grads in Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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Career centers at local universities say corporat e recruitment efforts are up and area businessee are continuing tomake entry-leve hires, including companies that have been hard-hit by the economiv downturn. Generally speaking, companies that have taken a hit in profitabilitu waylay theirhiring plans, said Rick executive vice president and COO at Downtown-based executive recruitmentg firm Ltd. But the current situatiojn is different. Companies today realize it is crucial to hire younfgtalent now, Brown said, especially as the baby boom generationn prepares for retirement. "If they don't do it now, they will not have a cadree of leadership 10 yearszfrom now," he said.
"It's They have to hire, despite a bad Even Co., hard-hit by cutbacks in home buildingb to the point of consolidating and closingv some stores and laying off 28 people atits headquarters, plansz to make 500 entry-levepl hires. That's down from 1,700 a year ago. "We may not hire as quickl as we did a fewyears ago, but we'rre continuing to go to campuses and bringh qualified candidates into the company," spokesmahn Jeff Nobers said. "You never batten down the hatcheds and quit lookingfor talent." Nationally, the prognosies from two job marker surveys is mixed.
Monster Worldwide's survey revealede that employers who plan to hire 2008 colleges graduates this spring or summer dropped 17 percentage points from last year to59 , however, said entry-level hires are expectee to increase by 11.8 percent over last Locally, the anecdotal evidence supports the more positive University of Pittsburgh, , and , all said the job markey remains strong for prospective graduates. "Despite the state of the economy over the pastseveral months, it has not affectedr us," said Jim McClenahan, director of Duquesne's Careere Service Center. "That doesn't mean it won't in the future, but we'rre holding our own.
" for example, is increasing hiring from 1,350 last year to 1,50p in 2008. It ranked 26th on the CollegeGrad.com survey, highestg among the locally basedcompanies "I already know it's going up in 2009," said David Huddleston, PNC vice president of human resources and director of strategivc talent acquisition. Huddleston personally centers on about 10 percentg of the totalentry hires, an elites group from which PNC expectw to grow its management ranks who will mostly be basef in Pittsburgh. "Over the next few years, I know I'l hire a future chairman," he said. Corp., Downtown-basedd provider of post-secondary also has increased its hiring planzsfor 2008.
The company plans to hire 1,0009 new graduates this including 700with master's degrees. Last the company hired 625. Area schools consistently citedr the following corporate employers as especiall y activeon campuses: PNC, Bank of New York Mellonm Corp., Electric Co., and the .