Resumes, portfolios, interviews -- all of this stress may actually pay off for college graduates this spring.

Students that have an associate, bachelor or masters degree who will be entering the job market will face an expected 20 percent increase in hiring, according to a survey that was released by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute (CERI) at Michigan State University.

Philip Gardner, director of CERI, said 6,000 employers were contacted, and 600 responded, mostly in retail, finance, manufacturing and professional services.

The survey results are based on the 600 employers who responded.

"It asks them to project their hiring needs for the academic year, ending in the spring of the following year," he said. "We are trying to match [the sample] with changes that we hear about. We monitor the kind of companies that are merging and are creating new jobs."

Penn State Career Services Director Jack Rayman said he is skeptical about the survey.

Usually if there is going to be a hiring increase, companies and organizations contact Career Services in advance to schedule for interviews, he said.

"Who knows what's going to happen," Rayman said. "We'll believe [the job increase] when we see it, and we haven't seen that."

Students graduating with a degree in accounting, marketing and business are in highest demand according to the survey.

However, the survey found all academic majors will see at least a moderate increase in hiring.

Gardner said the expected increase is probably due to replacing jobs that were eliminated during the economic slowdown.

According to the CERI survey, 49 percent of employers said they expect hiring to increase for college graduates.

Another survey published by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) also indicated a more positive outlook for college graduates.

In August 2004, NACE found an increase of 13.1 percent of jobs for college graduates from 2003-2004.

In a follow-up survey in December, 62.5 percent of employers confirmed their original hiring predictions, while 25 percent said they revised their hiring projections upward.

Kathleen Kelliher (sophomore-geography) said she has not been thinking about the job market just yet, but she experienced the problem of a tight job market through her sister, who graduated from Penn State in May 2004.

"She had a tough time finding a job and she was a business major," Kelliher said. "It took her six months to find one. She did marketing and now she's doing stuff with 401k plans."

According to the NACE salary survey for fall 2004, people with an engineering degree had the highest average starting salary, ranging from $40,000 to $50,000.

Those that have a business degree earn somewhere in the middle range, which starts between $30,000 and $40,000.

A survey conducted by Career Services annually on Penn State graduates three months after they graduate showed that 74.7 percent of students graduating with a bachelors degree were seeking employment.

Of that percentage, about 75 percent had secured employment, 6 percent had secured part-time employment and 18 percent were still seeking employment.

Students with a doctoral degree have the highest employment rate. The higher the degree, the greater the chance for employment, Rayman said.