UNEVEN NOW

Kristen Kobus hunted hard for her first job out of college, scattering her résumés like buckshot across 30 local companies.

The effort landed Kobus big game: a job with one of Southern Nevada's biggest advertising agencies, SK+G, where she's worked as an assistant in the media department since February.

It took Kobus, a December journalism graduate from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, just two months to find her dream first job. Few of her peers reaped the same fortune, though. Many of her classmates now work in lower-skill service jobs as they continue searching for a toehold in the communications profession, she said.

That uneven hiring climate prevails nationally, with mixed news this spring and summer for the country's newest college graduates. Depending on field, class rank, extracurricular activities, networks and even luck, new grads either found work quickly or languished on the job market. John Challenger, chief executive officer, called 2008 a "lukewarm to warm year" for graduate hiring.

Observers track the job market for college grads because it holds important clues to the vitality of the broader economy, revealing whether companies expect solid business in the coming months and years, Challenger said.

"It's certainly an indicator of the economic health of the country," he said. "It's a strong indicator of how businesses see their prospects going forward. If you're optimistic about the future, you want to make sure you're bringing in new grads and new talent year in and year out to ensure the long-term health of your organization."

Hiring numbers show uneven expectations among companies.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers in Bethlehem, Pa., found that members planned an 8 percent increase over 2007 levels in hiring of newly minted grads. But a report from CareerBuilder.com found tougher times for college grads: Just 58 percent of businesses surveyed said they'd hire recent college graduates in 2008, down from 79 percent in 2008. Of those hiring, 24 percent said they'd bring on more grads than they recruited in 2007, and 39 percent planned to boost starting salaries.

A salary survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers showed spotty wage gains for the class of 2008. Though average salaries in all fields were set to rise 5.3 percent this year, new grads in fields including accounting, business administration and finance are seeing little or no improvement in salaries compared with last year's job offers. But management information systems professionals posted an increase of 8.2 percent of 2007's salaries, while marketing graduates enjoyed 4.9 percent more pay than their counterparts saw a year ago. Computer-science grads took in 13 percent more than students in the class of 2007. Starting salaries ranged from $44,000 in marketing to $65,000 in computer science.

There's evidence the struggling economy, with its housing struggles and flat retail sales, took a toll on hiring plans this spring, said Mimi Collins, a spokeswoman with the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Members surveyed in the fall projected a 16 percent jump in graduate hiring this spring; by February, that number had halved.

"The market was still positive according to employers, but it wasn't quite as rosy as it had been when we surveyed them at the beginning of last fall," Collins said.

Twin trends have forced 2008's mixed job outlook for college grads, Challenger said.

With sales slumping and consumer confidence dropping, companies skittish about future revenue want to cut expenses and restrain hiring. Yet, human-resource managers must also wrestle with looming personnel shortages as baby boomers retire. That means some businesses continue to hire despite the ailing economy.

"Long term, companies are realizing they need to keep layering in younger people and strong talent, and tie them into the corporate culture to build the future for their company," Challenger said.

So which fields offer the best prospects in 2008?

Health care, energy, commodities such as steel, mining, agriculture, information technology and any field with a heavy international component, Challenger said. New grads find fewer opportunities in banking and finance, securities dealing, and anything related to housing, including construction and property management.

Odds improve for good students who engaged in extracurricular activities, Collins said.

"If you're a top student in a high-demand field, and you've done an internship or have some kind of relevant experience, a lot of employers are going to be looking at you," she said.

Las Vegas in particular grapples with hiring volatility, Challenger said. That's because the city benefited from economic growth more than most areas, and thus feels today's pain more than most as well.

At SK+G, at least, hiring among new college graduates has held steady in 2008. Regardless of the economy, the company adds new clients or promotes employees, so SK+G needs a stable flow of new recruits, human resources director Kim Nasuta said. For example, three promotions in the agency's media department helped clear the way for Kobus.

Kobus credited her speedy job search to hard work, persistence and networking. Of the 30 or so résumés she submitted, just three companies responded. So she tapped her friends, getting a recommendation from a high school friend already in the fold at SK+G.

"The economy's not doing so well, and it's really competitive," Kobus said. "You have several thousand people who graduated here at the same time, all looking for jobs. You have to try really hard. For every 100 résumés you send out, you may get one call back. You have to make an effort to get yourself out there, or no one will notice you."

But the most uncontrollable element of all -- timing -- played a role in Kobus' hiring as well.

"If you're lucky enough to submit a résumé when a company has a position open," said Kobus, "things will work out."

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.