Green Bay Reporter

University of Wisconsin Green Bay Chancellor Michael Alexander admits he’s happy to see all his more than 1,100 spring graduates go.

"There's obviously a huge shortage in the labor market," Alexander told Fox11Online.com. "That's part of what we're doing as a university by trying to fill that need."

With this being the height of graduation season, ceremonies are happening at colleges across the state and Alexander is among those who feels the timing couldn’t be better for companies now struggling to feel all their needs.

Armed with her newly earned bachelors’ degree in English, UWGB grad Tabatha Zwicky is ready to join the ranks of the working.

"I'm looking in the publishing industry,” she said. “I want to go into books, publishing and editing."

According to The National Association of Colleges and Employers, companies plan to hire in the neighborhood of 31.6 more college graduates this year compared to last, and Alexander insists UWGB is doing all it can to meet the growing demand.  

"We've added a lot of degrees like engineering, nursing and education," he added. "The kind of degrees where we know there are big shortages to make sure we are filling in the gaps there."

In all, the U.S. Labor Department reports employers added 428,000 jobs in April, adding that there were roughly 11.5 million open jobs at the end of March, the highest on record.

Urban Studies major Max Zeddies said he has had success landing a job even before graduation.

"I probably applied to about four to five, I found out about this one,” he said. “I had a few interviews, and I got a call back within the first week.”