Dive Brief:

• The coronavirus pandemic threw a wrench in recent graduates’ plans, according to the results of a March survey by Monster. Nearly half — 45% — of survey respondents who were part of the spring 2020 graduating class said they were still working for work.
• Sixty-eight percent of recent and impending grads said in the survey they are worried employers will "unfavorably judge" the gap on their resumes created by the pandemic.
• However, 71% of recent and impending grads surveyed said they feel they are overqualified for entry-level positions, and 78% say that entry-level jobs "should last less than a year." 

Dive Insight:

In the direct wake of the pandemic, 2020 graduates were fairly confident in their ability to find a job in their career path, a July Barnes & Noble College Insights survey said. Entry-level job postings fell sharply, however, a separate June Glassdoor survey showed, particularly in tech fields. And after a year that saw many internships and other key talent programs canceled, organizations are still considering how to move forward with internship and entry-level programs in 2021, experts told HR Dive.

While some internship programs moved remote in response to the pandemic, employers are still grappling with whether to do so again in 2021 — but the nonprofit National Association of Colleges and Employers expects to see "about the same number of positions, maybe a fraction of a percent less" in 2021 as in 2020, said Edwin Koc, the organization's director of research, public policy and legislative affairs. Still, organizations weren’t thrilled with their virtual programs, he said; "I wouldn't say what we saw was a great satisfaction with the way virtual turned out," he noted.

Despite grad confidence in their abilities in the Monster survey, employers think new grads lack the skills required to thrive in their careers, an Association of American Colleges and Universities survey said. The biggest gaps were in critical thinking, data analysis and interpretation, and applying knowledge to real-world settings, according to the survey, all of which were skills employers found to be "very important."