Last month, Anthony Johnson was much like every other senior in college - concerned about graduation, finals and the ultimate question of what to do next.

Luckily for Johnson, a recent graduate of South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, he had the last part figured out. In fact, he had five separate job offers before he even graduated.

"It may seem difficult to get that many job offers, but it really is much more difficult to choose the one you want," Johnson said.

In the end, he decided to accept a marketing position with Caterpillar.

But Johnson's high number of offers shouldn't be too surprising considering recent findings from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The group found that 2007's college graduates may have a better chance at landing a job than in previous years - actually, an 18.4 percent better chance in the Midwest alone.

Locally, Darrell Sawyer, Career Center director at Tech, said that NACE's findings are right on target to what he is noticing at the South Dakota engineering school.

"Usually, some of our graduates will get a job offer back in September from an internship or co-op they worked at, but recently, there has been a recognizable increase in the amount of students receiving multiple job offers," Sawyer said.

Although the NACE report doesn't elaborate on the cause of the increase, Sawyer suggests that job growth within the economy and more baby boomers retiring may be the reasons.

Also noted in the NACE report was the increase of starting salaries among graduates.

"They [NACE] suggest that salary offers are increasing; even though in the Midwest they don't increase as fast as a national average, I would still say that they grew at around 5 percent," said Ellen Dickey, director of the Employment Services Office in the Beacom School of Business at the University of South Dakota.

Dickey said that one of the biggest reasons for the nationwide salary increase can be attributed to competition between companies going for the same new graduates.

Johnson agrees.

In the final months leading up to graduation, he said that companies would offer to actually bring him to their headquarters for a one-on-one interview.

Plus, with increasing Internet penetration among college students, companies are finding new ways to recruit the best and brightest. Dickey said that social networks such as FaceBook.com or MySpace.com are commonly being used for recruiting purposes.

"They (companies) have employees who have accounts on these sites who use them to network with students," Dickey said. "Whether it's just an advertisement or an invite to lunch, it's happening more and more."

The swell of popularity of these Web sites is getting from employers might appear to be an easy way to get that dream job; it also might keep you from getting it.

"We really try to get that message out to students that more and more employers are looking at your profiles on these networks," said Sawyer.

List under your interests that you're a weekend alcoholic or you like to streak during baseball games, and some employers might not find that appealing.

Sawyer offered this advice.

"Take a look at your profile, and if you find something you wouldn't want your grandma to see, then it's probably not best to have it on there," he said.

However, Johnson said that most of the employers he met with weren't too concerned with how he presented himself digitally.

"They told me that you have a personal life and a professional life, and as long as you keep them separate, it doesn't really matter what you do in your free time."

Hiring outlookThe NACE Job Outlook 2007 Spring Update research is composed of 243 survey respondents from the service, manufacturing and government/nonprofit sectors. Among the sectors, there was a 19.2 percent increase in projected hiring from college applicants. Additionally, 70 percent of respondents said that they expect to recruit more or the same number of college graduates for hire in the fall 2007 season.