Newcomers to the workforce make less than in previous years

After graduating from Emerson College in 2010, Nicole Cassaro said she knew she wanted to stay in Boston.

Although she earned a degree in writing, literature and publishing, she had to keep herself open to all kinds of different jobs after graduating in hopes that she could find one in the city.

Cassaro said she went into Professional Staffing Group looking for a position within the company in 2010. She walked out with a job.

“They hired me on the spot as one of their recruiters, and I started the very next day,” she said.

The new job came in the midst of wide wage erosion throughout the United States, with entry-level hourly wages declining steeply between 2007 and 2011, according to a recent press release from the Economic Policy Institute, a self-described non-profit “think tank” that researches and analyzes the American economy.

New workers made 23 percent less in 2011 than they made in 1979, according to the release.

Despite the shift, recent graduates such as Cassaro who chose to hunt for jobs in Boston rather than in other cities might be in luck.

Boston came out on top in a Rent.com ranking of the best American cities for recent college graduates to live in, according to Forbes.

The company, which based its findings on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, considered such information as the unemployment rate – 6.8 percent in Boston, as of January – the amount of rental listings, the cost of living and annual mean wages.

The Hub’s unemployment rates are low compared to rates in other major metropolitan areas such as Chicago (9.6), Los Angeles (11.0), and Miami (7.4); but higher than New York (5.5) and Minneapolis (5.9), which ranked just below Boston in the Rent.com list.

In addition to its unemployment rate, Boston has a high average entry-level hourly wage of $27.19, according to Forbes, higher than most of the other highly rated cities on the list.

Cassaro said when she started her job at Professional Staffing Group, a Boston staffing firm that provides employment services to clients and companies, she did not expect to be paid any particular amount, adding she was happy just to get hired.

“I had no pay expectations when I started, so I was happy with the $11 per hour I got when I began,” Cassaro said.

Companies based in Boston said while they get job applications from people all over the country, they often hire college graduates who attended Boston-area schools.

Cambridge marketing-software company HubSpot receives applications from college graduates from all over the country, said recruitment team member David Fernandez, but the company tends to hire Boston-area college graduates.

Evaluating job candidates becomes more difficult if the job seekers went to unfamiliar colleges, he said.

“When you’re looking at someone outside of Boston . . . it’s hard to know how good is the University of Arkansas in Little Rock as opposed to wherever else,” he said. “Even though they did well, we don’t know what the school is like.”

He listed why more familiar schools potentially appeal more to Boston-area employers.

“One, we have really great schools in Boston, and two, we know the schools,” he said. “We know the kind of curriculum they have, we have people in [HubSpot] that went to those schools. We know the kinds of talent they produce, and it makes it a lot easier.”

Suzanne Wenz, the regional director of public relations at Boston’s Fairmont Hotels and Resorts at Battery Wharf and Copley Plaza, said Fairmount gets applications from all over the country and world, but looks to Boston as a major source of new employees.

Many colleges in the Hub, including Boston University, offer good hospitality programs to students, she said.

“There’s a number of hotels in Boston . . . so hospitality is a big industry in Boston and in Massachusetts,” she said. “[Boston] is a really nice place for college graduates to look for opportunities, to see what is available, should they be interested in a hospitality career.”

But students headed toward careers in such areas as the film industry may not find much employment in Boston.

College of Communication graduate student Alex Stout, studying television production, said he came to BU specifically because the university offers an internship program in Los Angeles.

“L.A. is still the capital for the film industry,” he said.

Students should be open to jobs outside of their majors, Cassaro said.

“If I were looking for writing jobs, I’m pretty sure I’d be unemployed right now,” she said. “I love my job, but I never knew anything about the industry before. If I didn’t have an open mind, I wouldn’t have a job that I love.”