One of the nation's leading job-placement firms for construction supply notes in a new blog today that some employeers seeking to attract and retain young, talented college graduates are beginning to offer help on repaying those new hires' student loans.
"And it’s working," Schaffer Associates reports. "Companies offering this benefit have reported significant increases in the level of interest in joining their organization AND in the caliber of individuals who apply. Morale has gone up for current employees who have signed up for the program, and employers feel less concerned about their talent being pulled away by a competitor." For this Charlotte, N.C.–based company, it's easy to see why the benefit is so attractive:
In a staggering picture of the exploding cost of higher education in America, it’s estimated that 70% of college graduates leave school with student loan debt. That number averages out to around $30,000 per graduate, but 20% of these individuals carry $100,000 or more in debt into their first forays into the workforce. Student loan debt, for millennials, is now a bigger problem than credit card or automobile debt and can be crippling for the first several years of an individual’s career.
Offering this benefit to help eliminate student loan debt "is absolutely one of the best ways to recruit and retain the kind of young employees you need," the blog contends.
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