MADISON, Wis. -- Thousands of UW graduates walked across the stage during graduation ceremonies Sunday in Madison, but their minds will soon be on job hunting.

Job prospects for graduates are the best they've been in six years, since the dot-com bust, reported WISC-TV.

Nationally, employers said they are planning to hire 14 percent more college graduates than last year.

At the UW the number of companies recruiting students is up by 14.5 percent as well.

Officials at the UW's Business School Career Center said there are more than enough jobs to go around. One student had 55 interviews and ended up with seven offers.

"It's a great time to be a graduate, but it's not so great if you're a company who is trying to hire students, because you're working with the same pool of candidates as there was three years ago when the economy wasn't so great," said career center director Steve Schroeder.

Students graduating Sunday weren't worried about their future employment either.

"I live in a house with eight guys, all of us just graduated, and we all have jobs lined up and everything," said Steve Solberg, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism. "The job market right now seems pretty good, if you just go out there and make the right step forward and get what you need to get, you can find what you want."

Students who don't yet have jobs lined up didn't seem worried about the hunt, either.

"I have a six-month space before I plan to move to Chicago," said Alicia Darden, also a journalism graduate. "I want to get my portfolio ready and send out resumes and apply for jobs, but I hope to find something by January."

The number of jobs isn't the only good news, salaries are also looking up. In the UW Business School, the average starting salary for a recent graduate this year will be $47,000 a year.