Springtime will release a flood of U graduates into the job market, ready to put their education into practice. However, many graduating seniors are doubtful of their employment prospects because of the wake of the economic slowdown after Sept. 11.
These fears are not unfounded as the National Association of Colleges and Employers reports that overall college hiring is down 37 percent and graduates are competing for fewer and lower-paying jobs. Undoubtedly, finding a job will be more of a challenge than it was last spring.
Prospects in some fields have been harder hit than others.
According to Pam Perlich, a research economist, those industries are construction, manufacturing and travel and tourism.
Business is another area that has been negatively impacted. “Consulting has gone way down,” said Career Services Director Stan Inman. College recruiters from companies such as Computer Consultants Corporation, Fairbanks Capital and GE Capital Financial all did not make an appearance at the U this spring.
Another indicator, according to a NACE survey, may be in paychecks. Average offers for business administration graduates are down 9.1 percent and information sciences and systems graduates’ average dropped 5.4 percent.
Perlich explained that salary statistics usually indicate the supply and demand of a certain job. Therefore, a significant decrease in salary can indicate fewer available jobs being sought by a larger number of qualified individuals. The drop in salaries reported by NACE for business administration grads can reasonably be construed as a function of fewer available jobs in those fields.
“For every job, there are like 10 people who want it,” explained Brad Johnson, a 2001 graduate from the College of Business’ information systems MBA program. Johnson has been busily looking for a job in his field since last May. He said that the impact the events of Sept. 11 had on the stock market, combined with the slowdown that the economy was already experiencing has reduced opportunities this year as compared to when he graduated.
Even so, he was unable to find anything a year ago. But Johnson continues his search, posting his resume in numerous places on the Web and talking with people who might know of possible opportunities.
Johnson has interviewed with big consulting firms, American Express and even J.C. Penney’s accounting department. “It’s pretty tough,” Johnson said. “People with 15 years of experience go after the same jobs and I have so little [experience].”
This year the recession has even impacted prospective graduates’ exposure to recruiters. According to Inman, the career fairs held this spring attracted 41 fewer employers than last year.
Inman explained that in times of recession, employers re assess recruiting on college campuses. They may recruit at fewer campuses than in times of economic growth or stability. Recruiting efforts must be concentrated on those campuses, which are specific to producing the sort of graduates the company is looking for.
“I would bet there would be more technical companies that aren’t coming,” Inman predicted. A closer look at Career Services’ records proved Inman correct. Technical companies that didn’t show up to career fairs this spring include IBM, Iomega Corporation and Microsoft.
“I was really surprised to see that,” said Dave Hanscom, a professor in the School of Computing. “Both [IBM and Microsoft] have hired a lot of our students in the past and as far as I know neither company is going down the tubes.”
Hanscom noted that both companies, but especially Microsoft, have had good experiences hiring U graduates and the only explanation for their absence at spring career fairs is simply that they must not be hiring many people at all.
He suggested Microsoft might be using alternative means of recruitment.
While there may be fewer jobs to go around immediately following graduation, the economy looks to be coming back quickly from its slump. Inman hopes that by next fall college recruiting will be back to “near normal” levels.
In the meantime, Perlich said that when the economy is coming out of a recession, employers create temporary positions with plans to make them permanent if business is good. A willingness to take a temporary position can often lead to good opportunities. And “internships, especially in a soft economy, are a great way to get a foot in the door,” Perlich said.