Stout reaches record high grads:jobs percentage

Posted at noon on April 8, 2019

The Brillion News

MENOMONIE – The employment rate for new University of Wisconsin-Stout graduates has climbed again, with the rate hitting 98.7 percent for those who received their diplomas in 2017-18, the university reported.

“It is simply amazing that this rate has gone up every year I have been chancellor,” said Chancellor Bob Meyer, about the announcement from the Career Services Office.

The 2016-17 rate was 98.2 percent. It was 97 percent when Meyer took office in August 2014.

“This continuous improvement is a result of hard work by our faculty and staff and the value that employers see in our graduates,” Meyer said. “Our main challenge now, frankly, is to keep producing enough graduates to meet the almost overwhelming workforce need.”

“Our Annual Employment Report showcases that what we are doing at UW-Stout is working and working well,” said Bryan Barts, Career Services director.

The four years of increases in the employment rate, as well as an increase in the number of participants in the Cooperative Education Program, Barts said, “show that both students and industry value what our programs are teaching.”

The average annual salary paid to new graduates was $44,000, up from $43,000 last year and $42,500 the year before. The annual starting salaries for 2017-18 UW-Stout graduates totaled an estimated $68.7 million, up from $68 million the year before.

“This means our students are having an incredible impact on the economy of western Wisconsin,” Meyer said. “This also means the taxpayers are getting a major return on their investment in UW-Stout.”

The report also found that 87 percent of students had jobs related to their major.

This is the first report that included a graduating class for the mechanical engineering program. The graduates had a 100 percent employment rate and an average starting salary of $62,000.