NALP's Fall 2010 Public Interest Employment Market Snapshot Report

NALP has released its first ever Public Interest Employment Market Snapshot Report, based on an online survey of public interest employers conducted in September. The report’s quantitative data largely confirms what previous evidence has shown: The economic recession had a serious, negative impact on public interest hiring, particularly in all areas outside of federal employment. And now, in the wake of the recession, it will take time for many employers to achieve enough financial stability to bolster hiring.

While not all of the news is positive, we hope that this modest-but-important first step toward a more data-driven understanding of the public interest employment market will be useful to law school students and graduates. The report also contains feedback from various types of public interest employers about what experiences/skills they wish to see from job seekers, and where future “growth areas” in public interest practice may appear.