Job prospects for the Class of 1977 are the best in the last five years, the College Placement Council announced this week.

Employers in the United States expect to hire 12 per cent more new college graduates this year than last year, the Council said in its report.

The report's predictions are based on a survey of 600 U.S. employers, mostly large banks, insurance companies, manufacturers and other corporate-type businesses.

The Council's predictions do not apply to students here, however, because over 80 per cent of Harvard graduates probably will eventually attend graduate school of some sort, Francis D. Fisher '47, director of the Office of Career Services and Off-Campus Learning (OCS-OCL), said yesterday.

And of those Harvard students who seek employment after college, "very few take the conventional corporation route," Robert J. Ginn, associate director of OCS-OCL. said yesterday.

Ginn said increased job prospects for liberal arts college graduates indicate an optimism in the business world which is probably the result of a recovering economy.

Lazy B-School Graduates

But, Ginn said, the increased prospects may also be the result of increased awareness among employers that "B.A.'s are brighter, less expensive, and harder working than business school graduates."

Starting salaries for college graduates in large companies are, in actual worth, lower than in past years, Richard B. Freeman, associate professor of Economics, said yesterday.

As the salaries paid to liberal arts college graduates fall, companies will hire more, and this also accounts for this year's increase in job prospects, Freeman said.

An economics professor who asked not to be named yesterday said the slowly improving economy may have spurred increased availability of jobs since last year.