Posted on 06/19/2003 7:29:51 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Grads find few jobs; experience is key By Stephanie Myers myers@gomemphis.com June 19, 2003
Vania Lam graduated with a bachelor's degree in consumer science retail from the University of Tennessee last month.
Now she's looking for a job, and the outlook is so bleak, she's already considering returning to school in the fall.
"It's just not going so great," she said. "I'll probably have a better chance of finding a job after I graduate from design school."
Although temporary staffing agencies are noticing an upswing in job placements, the job market for college graduates remains tough.
"The current market for new graduates is dreadful," said Robert Greenberg, director of career services at the University of Tennessee. "(The market) has been horrible to dreadful for the past three years, and it will probably continue to be dreadful."
U.S. unemployment reached a nine-year high of 6.1 percent June 6, and the nation has lost 2.5 million jobs since February 2001, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Those numbers make conditions unfavorable to spring college graduates seeking employment.
Several factors have contributed to the lethargic job market, including 9/11, the economic recession, the computerization of jobs and the delayed retirement of some professionals, Greenberg said.
"It was a slow market before 9/11," said Betty McWillie, director of Christian Brothers University's career center. "Now, with the reorganizing and downsizing, the market is really tight."
As a result, many students are accepting jobs beneath their education or - like Lam - planning to return to school.
About 15 percent to 20 percent of UT spring 2003 graduates are choosing to attend graduate school rather than confront the dismal job market, Greenberg said.
At the University of Memphis, 11.2 percent of December 2002 graduates (the most recent data available) said they were returning to school, said Karen Hayes, U of M career services director.
Part of the reason fewer students are graduating with employment may be a decrease in on-campus recruiter interest. Both Hayes and Greenberg said about half as many on-campus recruiters visited this year as in previous years.
The number of recruiters at the University of Mississippi's career center has remained fairly stable, said Toni Avant, the center's director. What has decreased, however, is the number of jobs those employers are trying to fill.
"It really is an employer's market," she said. "They have their pick and choose of the top students from across the country."
At CBU, although the number of on-campus recruiters has not decreased immensely, this spring, many of the recruiters were hiring for part-time rather than full-time positions, McWillie said.
Mississippi and Tennessee are not alone in this trend, however. The National Association of Colleges and Employers reported that 42.4 percent of employers who responded to a national survey expected to decrease the number of college graduates they hired in 2002-2003.
Of course, the class of 2003 does have some success stories. About 25 to 30 percent of spring UT graduates have obtained jobs in their field of study, Greenberg said.
And at Christian Brothers, where 80 percent of students last spring graduated with jobs, about 70 percent of graduates this year said they had jobs, most probably in their fields of study, McWillie said.
One of those successful students is Kevin Farmer, who will graduate with a bachelor's degree in communication from the University of Memphis in August.
Farmer has already obtained a position in his field of study, marketing and promotion, with AOL Time Warner Group's music division in New York.
"The market is not completely dry," Avant said. "There is not the quantity of positions, but the opportunity is still there."
The fields that appear to be doing the most hiring are those in education, accounting, sales and healthcare.
However, the outlook for hiring is best in the service sector, according to the NACE survey. Even though the service sector leads the nation, still only 4.8 percent of its employers expected to hire more college graduates in 2002-2003.
Graduates who are getting hired in their fields of study, Greenberg said, provide examples for freshmen and sophomores.
"They have the opportunity to build a good background," he said. "They need good academic performance, good work experience and leadership activities. Those are the things employers screen for."
Those are also the attributes that helped Farmer obtain his job with AOL Time Warner. He worked for the media company for three years as a satellite intern, doing marketing and promotional work for Memphis musicians.
"(Getting the job) would have been much harder without experience," Farmer said. "It let me learn hands-on, and I met people and networked with people and was able to branch out. It made it much easier for me because they looked at my application over someone just coming in off the street."
Students at CBU are encouraged beginning in their sophomore year to find part-time employment in their field of study to help after graduation, McWillie said.
"You can have a 4.0 (grade point average) but no work experience," she said. "You need the experience to be hired. It's more important now than ever."
Today's hiring freeze also presents a benefit to the workforce graduating in a couple of years, Greenberg said.
"The upside is that students graduating in a year or two now may have a better chance at employment because there are so many gaps where companies are not hiring now."
Stephanie Myers: 529-2849
Schadenfraude.
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