Current undergraduate students who are looking towards employment after graduation, as well as graduate students hoping to ride out the recession before beginning their job search may want to make note of survey results just released by Michigan State University’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute.  The survey focused on job prospects for new college graduates at 2,500 businesses nationwide, and the numbers don’t look good.  Things were even worse than anticipated for the classes of 2008 and 2009, with the job demand for college graduates dropping 40 percent in the past year, far exceeding initial projections of declines in hiring of 8 to 10 percent, and they aren’t expected to soon get better.

Hiring of new college graduates is expected to remain low, with overall figures dropping another 2 percent in 2010, with mid-size and large businesses anticipating continued reductions. However, some sectors are starting to show growth, though none can yet be described as booming. Smaller companies, especially, are expecting to hire more recent college graduates: approximately 15 percent more than last year. New graduates looking for jobs will also have better luck in the west than the east.

The types of businesses that are most likely to hire new graduates in the coming months include web design, e-commerce, information systems, nonprofits, statistics, nursing, social work, environmental sciences, manufacturing, agriculture production and food processing. Accounting, banking, and real-estate will continue to be poor bets, along with engineering, transportation, utilities, computer science and computer programming. Education is also likely to continue to suffer without federal stimulus money supporting K-12 teaching, and non-academic university jobs are likely to be scarce.

The Michigan State University researchers who conducted the survey warn that many of these shifts in hiring appear permanent, or at least long-lasting. College graduates will have to continue to compete fiercely for fewer jobs with lower starting salaries for years to come. To improve their chances at landing a job right out of college, students will want to demonstrate their flexibility and critical thinking skills, according to the report. Taking rigorous classes and participating in internship and independent study opportunities can help.

Students who want to be more competitive or who are struggling to find work may also want to consider graduate or professional programs, or other alternatives to employment. These can develop and showcase your thinking, research, and analysis skills, as well as provide advanced training and work experience directly relevant to your intended profession.

Posted: under College and the Economy.
Tags: College and the Economy, employment, job search

Comments (0) Nov 17 2009

Is it feeling crowded on campus?  It should be, according to new research. A Pew Research Center report released this week shows that in 2008, colleges experienced record enrollments, and early estimates indicate that 2009 enrollments may break the newly minted records for 2008.

Nearly 40 percent of young adults ages 18-24 were enrolled in college in October 2008, up from the previous record of 38.9 percent set in 2005. About 8 million young adults, or 27.8 percent, were enrolled in four-year colleges, representing a slight increase from 2007. However, community colleges have seen an enrollment boom, with their numbers swelling from 3.1 million students, or 10.9 percent of the young adult population, in 2007 to 3.4 million students, or 11.8 percent of young adults, in 2008.

A large part of the enrollment increase is attributed to the growing size of high school graduating classes, with the nation graduating the most students in 2009. This likely accounts for the growth in numbers overall, but something else may be contributing to the increase in community college enrollment. For that, most people are pointing to the recession, which encouraged students who may not have otherwise attended college to enroll, while pushing other college-bound students to explore less expensive options.

Giving further evidence to this theory is the decline in employment among young adults. In 2008, only 50.4 percent of young people aged 16 to 24 were working, compared to 52.7 percent in 2007. However, while more trouble finding work may have encouraged some students to consider attending college, it also has likely created a problem paying for school for many students. A large number of community college students tend to rely on income from work to pay their tuition, as opposed to applying for financial aid or student loans.

Based on enrollment increases for 2008 and anecdotal evidence of continued enrollment booms in 2009, it appears students are still finding ways to fund their educations. Still, students applying to college for 2010 may want to take note of these numbers and begin the college application process and scholarship search early just in case.

Posted: under College Applications, College News, College and the Economy.
Tags: College and the Economy, College Applications, college news, community college, employment

Comments (0) Oct 30 2009