Intern hiring in U.S. up 8.5 per cent

Nearly all firms planning to pay interns

United States employers expect to hire more college students for summer internships this year, according to a new study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

Employers plan to increase internship hires by 8.5 per cent over last year, found the 2012 Internship & Co-op Survey report which surveyed 280 NACE-member organizations.

Nearly all expect to pay their interns.

“This reflects the focus of these internship programs,” said Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director. “Employers taking part in the survey use their internship programs to feed their full-time hiring efforts; as a result, they pay their interns to ensure the best talent pool possible.”

Overall, responding organizations expect to pay bachelor’s degree-level interns an average of US$16.21 per hour. That’s down slightly from the 2011 average of US$16.68.

A separate study by NACE found that internship programs are an effective tool for feeding full-time hiring efforts. NACE’s 2011 Student Survey — which polled 50,000 students across the U.S. — found that nearly 90 per cent of students who took part in internships said they would accept an offer of a full-time job from their internship employer.

The same study also found that paid internships correlate to better job-search success for college students. Paid interns were more likely to get a job offer, have a job in hand by the time they graduated and receive a higher starting salary than their peers who took part in an unpaid internship or no internship at all.

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