CareerBuilder.com: Job Market, Salaries Improving For GradsCareerBuilder.com: Job Market, Salaries Improving For Grads

The job market for this year's college graduates is looking promising in terms of employment prospects and salaries, but the prospective graduates appear to be somewhat laid back when it comes to actually seeking employment, according to surveys released Wednesday.

In its annual survey of 1,000 hiring managers, CareerBuilder.com said 70 percent plan to recruit recent college graduates this year, an increase over last year's 62 percent. But another survey of prospective graduates by Experience Inc. revealed that just 20 percent has received offers of fulltime employment to date.

Experience, which polled 2,700 graduating college seniors, said 25 percent had received offers at the same time last year. Less than one-half has started to search for jobs this year. The survey found that 10 percent of the respondents planned a career in engineering while 9 percent were preparing for computing-related employment in hardware/software/services.

The respondents to the Experience survey said their university career centers were their "most effective career resource."

CareerBuilder said one-in-five hiring managers plan to increase their hiring rate of graduates this year. "The increased demand for educated labor is translating into a robust hiring outlook and bigger payoff for college graduates entering the job market this year," said Brent Rasmussen, the firm's chief operating officer, in a statement.

As for salaries, CareerBuilder said 27 percent of hiring mangers plan to increase salaries while just 5 percent plan to decrease them. Nearly 35 percent said they expect to offer $20,000 to $30,000 salaries while 7 percent plan to offer more than $50,000.