The Class of 2007 Heads To Work­, Study, and Play

The majority of the Class of 2007 plans to enter the workforce come graduation, though a third of seniors who plan on working next year still do not have a job lined up, according to The Crimson’s poll of graduates.

Though it may be little consolation to jobless seniors, the graduate unemployment rate suggested by The Crimson’s poll seems to be lower than those reported at Harvard’s peer institutions in recent years.

In a report on its Class of 2006 seniors, Princeton reported a 48 percent jobless rate among graduates heading into the workforce.

The job market that unemployed seniors face this summer, however, is significantly more robust than last year’s. The 2007 National Association of Colleges and Employers survey, which polls businesses about their hiring plans, reports that employers plan to hire 17.4 percent more new college graduates this year than they did last year.

Over one-quarter of respondents plan to live in New York City and 21 percent of the senior class plans on remaining in Boston. San Francisco and Washington, D.C., were the next major destinations of Harvard seniors, drawing 8 percent of graduates each.

Of the 22 percent of respondents entering graduate schools next year, 21 percent will attend medical school, 20 percent will begin a PhD program, 18 percent will be doing a master’s program, 17 percent will be going to law school, and 4 percent will be starting business school.

Not everyone will be working or attending graduate school—nearly five percent of poll respondents plan to travel for the year following graduation.