Fewer employers not hiring based on your GPA in the post COVID-19 world

It’s a sign of the times and the new normal that just 56.6% of employers are using student Grade Pont Averages (GPA) to screen college graduates from the Class of 2021 for open positions, according to a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

NACE’s Job Outlook 2021 Spring Update reports that this is a sharp decline from just two years ago, when nearly three-quarters of respondents planned to screen candidates by GPA. (See Figure 1.)

“Employers responding to social justice issues are committed to diversifying their workforces,” says Shawn VanDerziel, NACE executive director.

“There has been a lot of conversation about GPA being a barrier to employment without it being a valid indicator of a candidate’s ability to do the job. Eliminating the GPA cutoff is one method employers are using to expand the candidate pool in order to produce more diversity in their new hires.”

While fewer respondents are screening candidates by GPA, the average reported GPA cutoff remains at 3.0. In past reports, the groups of respondents using GPA cutoffs higher and lower than 3.0 were evenly split. This year, less than 9% of respondents will use a GPA cutoff greater than 3.0, while almost 20% will use a lower GPA cutoff (between 2.5 and 3.0) to screen new college graduates.

So, although a high GPA will still be a feather in your academic cap, a lower GPA may not be the barrier to getting the job of your dreams that it once was.

(Source: NACE)

Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today   /   Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter