With a stagnate economy and between 8.5 and 10% unemployment in the United States for the past 4 years I don’t think anyone thought higher starting salaries for college graduates was coming. Yep, college graduates are starting the recession off with a pay raise. According to the National Association of Colleges annual summer salary survey the average starting salary for a college hire is now $51,018. That is a 4.8% increase over last year. The New York Times recently printed this article though about how times are tough for college graduates.

“Now evidence is emerging that the damage wrought by the sour economy is more widespread than just a few careers led astray or postponed. Even for college graduates — the people who were most protected from the slings and arrows of recession — the outlook is rather bleak.“ Read more

What is going on here? With a high unemployment rate, a slow economy and lots of college graduates looking for jobs shouldn’t this equal lower starting salaries. Classic supply and demand right? That is not what we are seeing. “U.S. employers created the fewest number of jobs in nine months”, yet starting salaries are on the rise?

This looks to be the first rise in starting salaries since 2008. Maybe it is a green shoot (a sign things are starting to recover). The effects of things on the economy are far from perspicuous. The economy is very organic in nature, fed by things which are hard to understand and the impacts hard to measure.

I think the economy really just needs more optimism (and less massive government spending but that is not for this article). So I will focus on this news and the recent stock market rally as a positive green shoot for our economy.