Has the market turned around in the Salt Lake area for new grads?

I can only comment from my own experience as a student who graduated last April. Myself and other classmates who were alreay working as CNAs/PCTs/ect. found jobs within a few months after graduation; usually on the floors they alread worked on, or in the case with IHC, other floors within the hospital or region. Other classmates who were not working in healthcare have slowly found jobs one by one, but there are still some who are jobless and coming up to the 1 year mark post grad. I have a friend who has literally applied for 100+ jobs and only recieved one interview on the unit where she did her capstone, but was not hired. From a work perspective (IHC), there still seems to be plenty of applicants to choose from for any open positions that are filled by experienced nurses. However, there were quite a few positions posted for new grads last summer when I was searching, so that shows that managers are willing to hire them. My experience (and the experience of other coworkers and classmates) was that these new grad positions were mostly opened in order to hire a PCT/CNA that had graduated and the manager wanted to keep as a RN, but this does not seem to be the case for all.

Sorry if this is not very helpful or specific. My guess is that there is still quite a bit of competition here for new grads, but it might not be quite as bad as in California. Couldn't hurt to apply for positions if you are going to be in the area for a while, but I'm not sure that I would make frequent trips for offered interviews. I found during my search that many of us were simply "fillers" to satisfy a corporate requirment and that the real candidate had already been chosen before we even walked through the door. Good luck in your job hunt!