CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Talent Alliance’s Winter Career Expo tripled its attendance from last year, with over 800 students registered.
The event is geared toward college students and recent graduates looking for early career positions. Kara Carter, the vice president of Talent Initiatives at Greater Cleveland Partnership, said she was blown away by this year’s turnout.
She said the students in attendance represented over 80 different colleges from around the world – with students coming from local schools like Case Western Reserve University, to as far away as University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
“They’re thinking now about their jobs this summer,” Carter said. “They could be home playing video games or Christmas shopping, or you know, doing whatever 20-somethings do. But, instead they put suits on and printed out their resumes and they’re down here actively looking for jobs.”
Recent graduates are facing an unusually difficult job market. A national graduate employability report from Cengage Group claims it’s the toughest entry level job market in five years, with just 30% of graduates landing jobs in the field they studied.
“I have a lot of friends and family who have interned, who have graduated and they are having a lot of trouble finding jobs,” Kalayah Bradley, a student at the career expo, said.
Damon Hoody came to the career expo in search of an internship or full-time job as a computer network technician. He described the job market as “kinda bleak.”
“I think with a lot of like the recent events and the whole AI boom, I think a lot of companies are when they would have probably hired, let’s say five to 10 interns, they’re probably doing two or three,” Hoody said.
However, Carter said Northeast Ohio’s job market is unique and could potentially be more hospitable to recent grads.
“Our economy is growing faster than our population and these employers — 80 employers here today — they’re keenly interested in these students to fill those early career roles,” Carter said.
Carter said new graduates interested in Cleveland should look at the Cleveland Talent Alliance’s job board, which was launched in October to help boost Cleveland’s talent retention. She hopes the tool can be a helpful resource for new grads navigating the current job market.