The labour market outlook for the Class of 2024 offers some challenges as the hiring market has cooled over the past two years
Recent university and college graduates should expect to feel some pain when they seek career-track job opportunities in the current labour market, but pursuing relevant post-degree certificates and credentials, may be the key differentiator that establishes success over the long-term, experts said.
Results show Canadian graduates are less confident in their future career prospects and knowing what employers are looking for compared to the global average . They are also less confident about their career prospects in the current economic climate compared to their global peers.Over the past two years, employers’ hiring appetite has cooled. Overall, the number of job postings on Indeed stand roughly where they did pre-pandemic before they spiked through the spring of 2022, Mr. Bernard said.
“Post-graduate degrees certainly have their benefits, but we’re also seeing today’s graduates find ways to differentiate themselves in the crowded labour market by pursuing professional credentials that showcase their education and skills in emerging areas of importance, such as environmental, social and governance and data science,” Mr. Watkins said.
Currently, many graduate students receive funding such as scholarships and grants to work on their masters and PhDs. He said graduate studies also receives far more public investment, but despite those funds, students have fewer job prospects. Students embark on a PhD pathway to become professors, but there aren’t enough tenure-track positions available for all of them to get jobs as professors, he said.
His advice to students is that they must build on their arts degree by becoming lifelong learners and constantly grow and nurture their knowledge through an innate inquisitiveness.