Job Market Strong for College Graduates / Cerberus Buying Chrysler

This is the VOA Special English ECONOMICS REPORT.

Employers in the United States expect to hire almost twenty percent more college graduates this year than last year. So says the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

The group says employers are most interested in students with business, engineering and computer-related training. There is also great demand for business graduates with a master's of business administration or other advanced degree. Employers say they plan to increase hiring of M.B.A. graduates by eighteen percent.

Increases in starting pay are also a sign of the demand for business and technical majors. The average pay offer to newly hired marketing graduates is reported up by more than ten percent over last year. The increase is almost eight percent for graduates in business administration.

The job market for college graduates has grown stronger and stronger since demand reached a low point in two thousand two. The unemployment rate for all workers is four and a half percent. But people with a bachelor's degree have a jobless rate under two percent.

Just over half of employers said they expect to offer jobs to more college graduates this year than last. But the signs of job growth do not look so good for liberal arts graduates. Not only that, starting pay for graduates with a liberal arts degree is up just one percent.

Before we go -- we told you last month that the carmaker Chrysler was for sale. This week DaimlerChrysler of Germany announced a deal for its struggling American division. Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity company in New York, will buy an eighty percent share. The deal is valued at almost seven and one-half billion dollars.

Daimler will have to pay about six hundred fifty million dollars to complete the deal. And it will continue to hold twenty percent of Chrysler. But it will no longer be responsible for Chrysler's retirement and health care plans. Their cost is estimated at around eighteen billion dollars.

Labor unions are being told there are no plans for major job cuts beyond the thirteen thousand that Chrysler announced in February.

Chrysler lost one and one-half billion dollars last year. Recently, though, because of accounting changes, the loss was restated as six hundred eighty million dollars. The new owners say they are looking for a long-term plan to make Chrysler profitable again.

And that's the VOA Special English ECONOMICS REPORT, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.