The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) recently released its 2025 Internship & Co-op Report. The report found more than 70% of organizations expect to increase or maintain intern hiring.
For the 2025 Internship & Co-op Report, NACE surveyed from October 16, 2024, to January 2, 2025. Overall, 247 organizations participated in the survey, including 208 NACE member organizations, representing 24.8% of member organizations and 39 nonmember companies.
NACE’s 2025 Internship & Co-op Report found that nearly half expect to maintain their intern hiring at last year’s levels, while almost a quarter expect to bring in more interns in 2024-25 than in 2023-24.
However, overall intern hiring will likely fall by 3.1%, driven mainly by the most prominent companies reporting plans to trim their intern roles across industries.
Respondents’ intern hiring plans are driven by the organization’s needs (90.5%) and the state of the economy (22.9%). NACE surveys its employer members yearly to gather benchmarks on internship and co-op programs.
ZipRecruiter, a leading online employment marketplace, released its annual grad report, The Graduate Divide: Expectations vs. Reality for the Class of 2025.
Based on a dual survey of rising and recent college graduates, the report reveals that graduates’ expectations often clash with reality, especially regarding the job search experience, pay, job preferences, and views of the future job market.
Graduates found the job search took longer than expected. 82% of rising grads expect to start working within three months of graduating.
However, only 77% of recent grads accomplished that, and 5% are still searching for their first job. Graduates found salaries didn’t meet expectations, with 42% of recent grads reporting they couldn’t secure the pay they wanted.
The average starting salary for recent grads surveyed was $68,400. Rising grads want flexible jobs, but recent grads report they are hard to come by.
90% of increasing grads say schedule flexibility is essential to them, but according to recent grads, they’ll be hard-pressed to land such a role, as only 29% report having very flexible jobs.
Internships aren’t converting into full-time employment like they once did, with only 9.7% of recent grads saying an internship or apprenticeship helped them land a job, compared to nearly 40% of rising grads who believe it will be their ticket to full-time work.
AI is a looming concern for grads, with 47% of new grads and 46% of rising grads believing their field has or will have fewer jobs due to AI.
Industries hiring the most entry-level roles for recent grads include nursing, special education, and electronics engineering.
Get insights on hiring projections, AI screening, skills-based hiring and more so much more for the college Class of 2025 with Shawn VanDerziel, NACE President & CEO, and Minh Huyhn, an economist with KPMG.
This webinar is FREE for members: https://t.co/ZRxedTXqLU pic.twitter.com/QunU9LA52W
— National Association of Colleges and Employers (@NACEOrg) April 23, 2025
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