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Career Survey Report - Class of 1999
The Career Services Office conducts an annual survey of the previous year’s graduating class to determine the career and employment status of the new graduates. The 1999 survey was mailed out in early January to 1160 alumni representing bachelor degree graduates from January, May, and August 1999. A second mailing was sent out in February, and follow-up phone calls were made in April. For the second year, we utilized an on-line survey located on our web site that allowed graduates to send their results to us over the Internet. Through all of these efforts we yielded a total of 580 replies, a response rate of 50 percent. Appendix A provides a comprehensive listing of the majors included in each field of study and the number of respondents from each major. The chart below offers a short summary of the respondents.
| Fields of Study | # of Respondents |
| Social Sciences | 155 |
| Education | 170 |
| Management | 97 |
| Humanities | 100 |
| Sciences | 58 |
Six months to a year after graduating, 91 percent of the 1999 graduates were employed. Of those employed, 89 percent were employed on a full-time basis (up 5 percent from 1998) and 11 percent are employed part-time. Approximately 9 percent indicated that they were not employed. These respondents fell into one of the following categories: they could not find employment it their field or location (23 percent), they were in graduate school (41 percent), or they were not looking for employment (36 percent).
Reason Not Employed
As the local economy has continued to improve both in Massachusetts and New England, so has the unemployment rate for BSC graduates. The unemployment rate for the Class of ’99 was 2.0 percent, down from 3.1 percent last year. This year’s 2.0 percent was slightly lower than the Massachusetts unemployment rate of 3.0 percent during the Spring of 1999 as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics web site. The graph below illustrates the decline in the BSC unemployment rate over the past four years.
Unemployment Rates of BSC Graduates: 1994-1999
|
Bridgewater graduates continue to work in the Commonwealth and contribute to the vitality of the Massachusetts economy; approximately 92 percent of this year’s respondents are employed in the state, up 10 percent over last year. For the 1999 graduates, only 2 percent indicated that they were employed in other New England state, and 6 percent outside the Northeast.
Fields of Employment
The Class of 1999 graduates are employed in a variety of fields. Forty-one percent indicated that they were employed in Business, either manufacturing or non-manufacturing. Twenty-nine percent reported employment in Education (including Elementary, Early Childhood, Physical Education and Special Education), 13 percent in human services and non-profits and 9 percent in health related fields. Given the educational preparation of these graduates, these results are not surprising. The vast majority of respondents were Management Science, Education, and Behavioral Sciences majors. The number of graduates in government positions fell only slightly from 6 percent in 1998 to 5.7 percent in 1999. Relatively few graduates indicated that they were self-employed (2 percent), in the Military (1 percent) or in volunteer service (1 percent).Relation of Position to Academic Major
Graduates were asked to identify the degree to
which their position was related to their academic major. Seventy-eight percent felt that
their current position was either directly or somewhat related to their
major, down 2 percent from 1998. With the strong job market and the low unemployment rate,
most graduates have had the opportunity to secure positions more closely related to their
field.
BSC Preparation
Graduates were also asked how well they thought BSC had prepared them for their position by responding to the statement, "The academic program at BSC prepared me for my current position" using a scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Overall, 83 percent agreed or strongly agreed with the statement. It appears that since many were able to find employment in their chosen field, graduates felt good about their overall academic preparation.Graduate’s Rating of the Academic Program
"The academic program at BSC prepared me for my current position"
Salary Data
[Out of the 580 returned surveys 91 percent of the
Class of 1999 answered the salary range question.]
On the upper end of the salary scale were Science majors. Twenty five percent indicated they were earning $42,000 – $51,000 or over. Management majors represented 9% in this range.
In the $30,000-$41,999 range thirty-six percent were Management majors, thirty-four percent, Science majors, thirty-two percent were in the Humanities, and 22 percent Social Science. The salary picture for Education graduates has not kept up with other fields. Over 61 percent are earning below $30,000. The vast majority were in the $18,000-$30,000 range. Approximately 18 percent were earning between $12,000-$17,999 working full-time.NOTE: Local & national salary data is available in the Career Services Office.
BSC Salary Data for Class ‘99 Graduates
Percentages Employed Full-time
| Annual Salary $ | Social Sciences | Humanities | Sciences | Education | Management |
| < 12,000 | 2.5 |
2.6 |
2.1 |
2.9 |
0 |
| 12,000-14,999 | 5.0 |
2.6 |
2.1 |
8.0 |
3.4 |
| 15,000-17,999 | 5.0 |
0 |
2.1 |
7.2 |
1.1 |
| 18,000-20,999 | 11.7 |
2.6 |
0 |
10.9 |
0 |
| 21,000-23,999 | 15.8 |
9.0 |
17.1 |
9.4 |
4.5 |
| 24,000-26,999 | 21.7 |
26.9 |
4.3 |
21.7 |
12.5 |
| 27,000-29,999 | 9.2 |
16.7 |
8.5 |
18.8 |
21.6 |
| 30,000-32,999 | 11.7 |
16.7 |
10.6 |
8.7 |
12.5 |
| 33,000-35,999 | 5.8 |
6.4 |
14.9 |
4.3 |
12.5 |
| 36,000-38,999 | 1.7 |
2.8 |
4.3 |
1.4 |
9.1 |
| 39,000-41,999 | 1.7 |
6.4 |
4.3 |
0 |
1.1 |
| 42,000-44,999 | 1.7 |
2.6 |
6.4 |
0.7 |
2.3 |
| 45,000-47,999 | 0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2.3 |
| 48,000-50,999 | 0 |
0 |
2.1 |
0 |
4.5 |
| 51,000 & over | 1.7 |
0 |
17.0 |
2.2 |
9.1 |
| Missing | 5.0 |
5.1 |
4.3 |
3.6 |
3.4 |
Methods of Obtaining Current Position
Graduates were asked to reveal what they considered the primary source used to obtain their current position. Thirty-three percent of the graduates indicated that they obtained their position by networking. Twenty-six percent obtained their current positions through newspapers or professional journals, and 20 percent indicated that they were hired directly from their internship or prior employment with the employer. This seems consistent with much of the research that shows employers converting interns and part-time personnel to full-time positions. The Career Services Job Fair, Resume Referral Program and On Campus Interview programs and the Internet job site assisted 12 percent in finding the first job.Only four percent of our graduates indicated that they used an employment agency to obtain their current position. As we have seen before, graduates are using a variety of employment methods to find their jobs and networking continues to be an important strategy in finding the first job.
Approximately 16 percent of the respondents were enrolled full-time
(9 percent) or part-time (7 percent) in graduate or professional school at the time of
this survey. The consistent trend shows that from 1995-1999 between 13 to 17 percent of
our graduates go directly on to graduate school. Increasingly, graduate programs are
encouraging applicants to have at least a year or two of professional work experience
before enrolling.
Graduate School Enrollment 1995-1999
Internships To date there have been no institutional statistics about students who have completed internships. This year we added a few new questions to get a better picture of this area.
| Did you do
an internship? 41% indicated yes 59% indicated no Did you receive academic credit? |
Was the internship related to your field? 97% - indicated yes 3% - indicated no Were you paid? |
Notes/Acknowledgements:
Last Modified: October 6, 2003
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