ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Muhlenberg College senior Megan Hansen is about to turn her tassel from right to left.
“After graduation, I’m looking to be a theater director,” said Hansen.
Hansen is a theater studies and English literature double major with a minor in film. She said navigating the job market has been difficult for her and her peers.
“I found in just talking to my other classmates and collaborating with other people across like disciplines at Muhlenberg that it’s not just true for art students. It seems we’re all kind of in this boat of looking for anything,” said Hansen.
PA Career Link Lehigh Valley site administrator Gregg Scully said statistics show there has been slight job market improvement for recent college graduates.
“They anticipate around five percent more jobs being offered to new college grads this year,” said Scully.
He said healthcare, social assistance, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing have been fruitful industries in the Lehigh Valley.
Communications, computer science and social sciences fields have faced challenges.
Scully tells us AI has prompted hiring pauses for some employers, while it’s led to more opportunities for some.
“I think some companies are kind of sorting out where they’re going with things as they’re looking at how AI is going to impact their work processes and things like that,” said Scully.
He said recent grads should not look too specifically at a certain type of job.
“Look at more generally at the field and looking at different possibilities that they might be able to pursue and then looking at what that job could do in terms of their career progression,” Scully explained.