The University of North Texas – College of Business was recently featured in an article from the Dallas Morning News discussing the North Texas job market boom of recent years.
According to the article, this year’s job market—which will welcome more than 1.8 million Americans with four-year degrees—is one of the best graduates have seen in years. In just one year, a study from the National Association of Colleges and Employers discovered, companies are expected to increase hiring of new graduates by 5.2 percent. For the Dallas-Fort Worth metro—one of 59 metros with an unemployment rate below 4.0 percent—the economic boom has gone even further, largely thanks to the area’s talent pool.
Michael Carroll, director of UNT’s Economics Research Group, lent his expertise to the Dallas Morning News, explaining that increased migration to the state has allowed wages to stay at a manageable level while competition for workers encourages new jobs. And though the energy and manufacturing jobs are hurting across the state, North Texas has been mostly unaffected.
For Reggie Davis, a UNT logistics student graduating next year, job prospects are looking good. Positions in information technology and other “knowledge” jobs requiring degrees are in high demand in Dallas-Fort Worth. Moreover, UNT’s logistics program requires a student to intern for graduation. This, in combination with his participation in the school’s professional leadership program, guarantees that Davis will already be a competitive candidate out of the gate.
For most students in North Texas, choosing a career path and the company or position that fits best will be the biggest challenge they face after graduation. According to Dawn Gomez, career services coordinator at the Dallas County Community College District’s Northlake College in Irving, they are “tripping over jobs.”