1 in 2 new graduates are jobless or underemployed

[Arthur PE]

only 3 of the 30 fastest growing jobs require a college degree
there are 4 mil job openings and 10,000 people retiring a day
there are jobs people don't want or aren't qualified for


According to government projections released last month, only three of the 30 occupations with the largest projected number of job openings by 2020 will require a bachelor's degree or higher to fill the position – teachers, college professors and accountants. Most job openings are in professions such as retail sales, fast food and truck driving, jobs which aren't easily replaced by computers.

 

[Arthur PE]

http://student.fins.com/Articles/SB...s-Find-Math-Science-Engineering-Just-Too-Hard

Although the number of college graduates increased about 29% between 2001 and 2009, the number graduating with engineering degrees only increased 19%, according to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Dept. of Education. The number with computer and information-sciences degrees decreased 14%. Since students typically set their majors during their sophomore year, the first class that chose their major in the midst of the recession graduated this year.

Overall, only 45% of 2011 U.S. high-school graduates who took the ACT test were prepared for college-level math and only 30% of ACT-tested high-school graduates were ready for college-level science, according to a 2011 report by ACT Inc.

Meanwhile, only a third of science and engineering college graduates actually take jobs in science and tech fields, according to a 2007 study by Georgetown University professor B. Lindsay Lowell and Rutgers University professor Hal Salzman.
That may partly be because the jobs don't pay enough to attract or retain top graduates. Science, technology, engineering and math majors who stay in a related profession had average annual earnings of $78,550 in 2009, but those who decided to go into managerial and professional positions made more than $102,000, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

so people trained in science/enginnering, 2/3rds go into other fields, displacing many who majored in business/finance/mamagement, and in turn make worse the shortage of tech grads

 

[Arthur PE]

may be harder to get the first job, but
While the U.S. jobless rate fell to 8.3 percent in February, unemployment among college graduates over the age of 25 stood at 4.2 percent.

At its worst in September 2009, the unemployment rate for engineers reached 6.4 percent, versus nearly 10 percent for all occupations. By the middle of last year, it had dropped to under 2 percent.

Only 4.5 percent of all undergraduates come out of school with engineering degrees, according to the National Science Foundation.

 

[imschatz]

Finished school last summer, figured this out:
1) I have a Master's degree in Economics, got hired in less then 30 days after completing school.
2) Got hired with 3 other people with bachelor's degrees in Economics. It took them over a year to find meaningful employment.

Master's degree took 10 months to complete.

Lesson: Go to grad school.

 

[Kvc06]

^ IDK about that... I see SO many people that can't find jobs so they resort to going to back to grad school and getting into more debt. I think the big problem is students not having a plan/knowing what they want to do. This is regardless of major, but of course some majors might be able to slide by easier without a plan.

I laugh when I ask students in my program which is impossible to succeed in without a clear plan what they intend on doing after they graduate. Most have no internships and say "oh well it's such a broad major so there will be so many options.." I just laugh to myself and wish them the best of luck.... It's amazing how ignorant most students seem to be.

 

[stevent]



Well let's put this to the test. Will have my undergrad in finance finished in a month and started sending out resumes today. Have 5 years of business experience in transportation engineering writing government approved traffic analyses so my work experience is far superior than most all other graduates. We'll see if that works in my favor. We'll see how that job hunt goes....

And you just started sending out resumes?

And to be honest that doesn't sound too "superior" depending on what you are looking for.

 

[Liquidus]



And you just started sending out resumes?
And to be honest that doesn't sound too "superior" depending on what you are looking for.

Agreed, if you're looking for a job in finance.

 

[stevent]



Agreed, if you're looking for a job in finance.

I'm always a bit curious to meet these people. The ones that seem to think they are super good / superior, but don't have basic stuff down. Is it cause they think they have it locked down, or because they didn't know?

I remember missing PWCs deadline since they recruiter gave me one date that was ultimately changed and I procrastinated too much.

 

[thenanyu]



Well let's put this to the test. Will have my undergrad in finance finished in a month and started sending out resumes today. Have 5 years of business experience in transportation engineering writing government approved traffic analyses so my work experience is far superior than most all other graduates. We'll see if that works in my favor. We'll see how that job hunt goes....

Work those connections like a streetwalker trying to make quota, because blindly sending out resumes is a suckers game.

Agreed, if you're looking for a job in finance.

Depends on the school you're graduating from. Depends on your connections. Depends on how well you interview. Depends on other factors like race and gender too unfortunately.

 

[Coors Light]

I had 3 job offers in November and graduated the following May.

Be networking and job hunting a year before you graduate.

All offers were more than willing to wait a couple of months for me to start.

 

[Blog Marley]

I just graduated in a technical field a month ago and am surprised at the number of people I know without jobs, including a friend who graduated back in December. I started looking in late February and graduated with three offers, got two more after graduation.

From what I've seen a lot of my peers don't take the time to have their resume's worked on or critiqued and some of them are REALLY bad. Ultimately, those that aren't employed seem to be the types that think a bachelor's degree is a guarantee of a job.

 

[Gibonius]



I just graduated in a technical field a month ago and am surprised at the number of people I know without jobs, including a friend who graduated back in December. I started looking in late February and graduated with three offers, got two more after graduation.
From what I've seen a lot of my peers don't take the time to have their resume's worked on or critiqued and some of them are REALLY bad. Ultimately, those that aren't employed seem to be the types that think a bachelor's degree is a guarantee of a job.

I have a PhD in chemistry and it took me six months to find anything. Same deal with two other guys from my lab, two of them had to delay their graduation another semester so they could find work. Seems to be fairly common. I know I had a pretty nice looking resume, had it critiqued by industry professionals.

Big thing was that none of us had much of a network outside of academics and that wasn't what we wanted to do.

 

[amathew]

I graduated with my Master's almost two years ago and couldn't find a job for 3 months. I ended up quiting my job search and started my own
statistical consulting business with some funding from angel investors. Eight months later, that company failed, but I found a decent job at a
tech start-up in Denver. They were impressed with my entrepreneurial initiative right out of college, and I was completely honest about how I
was not prepared to run a company. Thankfully, it worked out.


I'm starting another job search soon, as I've been in my current job for 13 months, and I'm hoping things are a little quicker this time as I have
some good job experiance and a slew of freelance consultations under my belt.


I haven't read the entire thread, but I some posts about the degree and where one received their education. One thing I've realized about employers and prospective employees, at least in a tech industry context, is that what you majored in and where you studied are largely irrelevant. The senior software engineer at our company has a psychology degree from some small school and one of our junior developers doesn't have anything beyond a high school education. Of course, I also work with guys who have electrical engineering and economics degrees from stanford and berkeley. In the tech world, whether it's Garmin (i know a few people with poli sci and econ backgrounds who work there) , Google, or some small start-up, they are more concerned about your skills than what you studied or where you went to school.

 

[brokencycle]



I just graduated in a technical field a month ago and am surprised at the number of people I know without jobs, including a friend who graduated back in December. I started looking in late February and graduated with three offers, got two more after graduation.
From what I've seen a lot of my peers don't take the time to have their resume's worked on or critiqued and some of them are REALLY bad. Ultimately, those that aren't employed seem to be the types that think a bachelor's degree is a guarantee of a job.

Most of my friends had jobs lined up before they graduated or within a month after graduation. It took me a little more than a month to find a job, and that was partly because a couple offers I got were offering laughable wages - one job offer was less than $30k/yr for a computer programming position (at the same time one of my friends took a job for $95k).

I agree that when you have a well polished resume it helps. I updated mine right after starting my first job because it was in a position I didn't really want, and really worked on cover letter writing, and I had interviews for all three positions I applied for, with two of them leading to an offer.

I also have friends who after 2 years of searching have given up. I don't think they ever really put a lot of effort into the job search, and they were of the mindset that the world owed them a job.

 

[svelten]



Most of my friends had jobs lined up before they graduated or within a month after graduation. It took me a little more than a month to find a job, and that was partly because a couple offers I got were offering laughable wages - one job offer was less than $30k/yr for a computer programming position (at the same time one of my friends took a job for $95k).
I agree that when you have a well polished resume it helps. I updated mine right after starting my first job because it was in a position I didn't really want, and really worked on cover letter writing, and I had interviews for all three positions I applied for, with two of them leading to an offer.
I also have friends who after 2 years of searching have given up. I don't think they ever really put a lot of effort into the job search, and they were of the mindset that the world owed them a job.

How does one "give up" a job search? Don't you continue to go on until something falls on your lap, incrementally accepting lower and lower standards? Or do they just decide to become homeless?