Class of 2008 Grads Doing Fine, Finding Employment

The Class of 2008 graduated college in the midst of the Great Recession but new government data show that in terms of employment, they're doing just fine.

The National Center for Education Statistics study entitled "First Look at the Employment Experiences and Lives of College Graduates, 4 Years On" surveyed 17,000 people who graduated in the 2007-2008 academic year. They found that of those graduates who were not enrolled in further postsecondary studies in 2012, 82.5 percent were employed; of those individuals, 84.5 percent were in one full-time job, 7.8 percent had one part-time job and 7.7 percent had multiple jobs. Anthony P. Carneval, director of Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce, said the 2007-2008 graduates were "basically a step ahead of the storm," in terms of having jobs lined up before the recessions effects were felt. (Unfortunately, students who graduated in 2009 and 2010 were not so lucky.) You'll find several highlights from the study below but for a more in-depth look, click here:

• Graduates who worked but had never gone on for more postsecondary education had held an average of 2.1 jobs in the years since graduation. Nearly 39 percent had held one job, while 11.4 percent had held four or more jobs.
• On average, graduates who had not pursued further postsecondary education worked 84 percent of the months since graduating, spent 5.8 percent of those months unemployed and spent 10.2 percent of them out of the labor force.
• Graduates who were not enrolled in a postsecondary program in 2012 and who had a full- or part-time job worked, on average, 41.2 hours a week in that job. Full-time workers earned an average annual salary of $52,200 and a median salary of $46,000. Part-time workers earned an average of $25,900 and a median of $20,200.

It's important to note that the study doesn't show whether graduates were employed in a field related to their studies, how student loan debt affected graduates' wealth or earning potential, or whether they sought financial support from family members. With that being said, what do you think of the findings? And to the recent college graduates, how is your job search going? Share your thoughts and experiences in our comments section!