(Radio Iowa) – It’s college commencement season, and thousands of new graduates will be entering the world of work. Iowa Workforce Development director Beth Townsend says the state historically does see a little bump in job numbers as college students.  “Sometimes those are offset because you get the school bus drivers who all go on vacation in the summer months, so they all file for unemployment. And so sometimes that can offset your numbers a little bit,” she says. Townsend says some graduates already have jobs lined up, but there are plenty of opportunities for those who don’t.

“But we do hope that they all stay, and I went, we have, you know, 48-thousand open jobs posted on iowaworks.gov. So there are a lot of great jobs to be had,” Townsend says. “People think that jobs posted on iowaworks.gov are not great jobs. They are, they’re in every industry we have in Iowa. Townsend says the jobs are with some top companies in the state. “A lot of them are high wages, so there are a lot of great opportunities, and so college graduates should expect, if they haven’t already found a job, that they’re going to have a lot of opportunities once they actually start looking,” Townsend says.

Townsend says employers of all types are looking for qualified people to fill their open positions.