http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/bu ... tstory.jsp
Posted on Mon, Jun. 09, 2003
GRIM PICKINGS
Grads face the worst job market in decades
BY ART JESTER
Herald-leader Staff Writer
Kristin Hargis has a college degree -- and a job.
This makes the recent University of Kentucky graduate one of the lucky ones in the Class of 2003.
Unlike Hargis, now an associate producer at WLEX-TV (Channel 18 ), most new graduates nationwide have stepped into the real world only to find what many career and job placement experts are calling the worst job market in 20 years.
"It is a tough time," said Sharon Childs, an assistant director of the UK Career Center.
"We're finding it very, very difficult," said Laura Melius, director of career services at Eastern Kentucky University.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers says this year's college graduates don't face tougher prospects than last year's graduates, but that's little comfort because the job market wasn't so good then, either. The unemployment rate for people ages 20 to 24 is 10.1 percent. Corporate hiring fell by 36 percent from 2001 to 2002, and is merely holding its own now.
As a result of such poor prospects, many new degree holders are going to graduate school. The Council of Graduate Schools said enrollment grew by 5 percent last year and this fall is expected to increase even more. This year, 539,000 people -- the most ever -- will have taken the Graduate Record Exam, required to enter most master's degree programs. Medical school applications are up for the first time in seven years; law school applications have grown by 10 percent, after an almost 18 percent jump last year; and several social service organizations -- including Teach for America, Americorps and the Peace Corps -- are attracting a bigger pool of qualified applicants.
Salaries can vary significantly depending on the job. But the National Association of Colleges and Employers reports that the graduates are "fairly-realistic" about beginning salaries. Of the 521 students who responded to the association's latest survey, almost three out of four seek no more than $35,000 a year, and almost half are hoping for $20,000 to $30,000. The top-ranked benefits are medical insurance, a 401(k) retirement plan, annual raises, dental insurance and life insurance, in that order.
'It's a little scary'
But to get a paycheck and benefits, a graduate will have to find a job.
Oddly, finishing college often gets in the way.
"A lot of times students get so wrapped up in their courses and finishing their academic work, they put off doing a thorough job search," Melius said. "You have to be persistent."
But even the persistent get discouraged.
"There are very few jobs out there," said Pam Sizemore, 40, who has a new UK degree in communications. "It's a little scary because the job market is so tight."
"You think when you graduate and have your degree you should be able to walk in and get a job," said Sizemore, a single mother and former UK employee. She will also complete associate degrees in Web design and graphic arts next May at Lexington Community College, where she is student body president.
Sizemore already spends three to four hours a day job-hunting, surfing the Web and scanning newspaper ads, but she has yet to find an opening that matches her job skills.
She remains hopeful, but she knows that new graduates might have to take what they can find.
"I've got friends with four-year accounting degrees who have to work in restaurants and make more than they would at an entry-level job in accounting," Sizemore said.
Stepping stones
Or new graduates could, as Hargis has done, settle for an undesirable schedule to get a toehold in the field of their choice.
"I get up at 3 in the morning," said Hargis, who works on WLEX's early morning, noon and 12:30 p.m. newscasts. She's learning to do a host of duties that can be summarized as "anything that needs to be done," she said.
"I would tell people 'Don't aim too high,'" she said. "I had to be willing to have really bad hours and not be a reporter at first. But this job is usually a stepping stone to reporter or producer."
Hargis's story exemplifies the adage "luck is when preparation meets opportunity."
While working on her degree in broadcast journalism, Hargis spent a summer working at WPSD-TV in Paducah. She also had two internships at WLEX, one in her junior year and another last January and February.
"There was an opening and I applied," she said, when a veteran WLEX assignment editor, Mike Taylor, recommended her.
She got the job and WLEX let her work part-time until graduation, when she went full-time.
"It was nice peace of mind," Hargis said of the offer. "I wasn't really sure what I was going to do about a job. I guess I thought I'd send out tapes and pray and hope somebody would call me for an interview."
A long march
Few students move into a new job with such relative ease, but Hargis had positioned herself -- and got a break.
In most cases, new graduates will have to develop endurance for what could seem like a long march across an inhospitable landscape, experts say.
"It's a very competitive job market," said UK's Childs.
The successful applicants, she said, will be those who have better rŽsumŽs and special, or even unique, skills, from their working knowledge of computers to foreign languages.
"They need to have these kinds of things well-honed," Childs said.
A clear goal also helps.
"One young lady came in and I was really impressed with her organizational skills," Childs said. "She knew each day what she was going to do with her job search.
"And she was able to get a job eventually."
That's the hope of Cameron Reed, who will get her UK bachelor's degree in August with a double major in economics and Spanish. She has just started to look for a job -- and feels queasy.
"I feel like my options are limitless," she said, yet she's told she's not qualified for jobs because she lacks experience.
"The only thing I've been able to find is being a cashier for a bank," she said.
"It's very discouraging."
Reed said she might go on for an MBA. She doesn't have an ideal job in mind, but she's willing to relocate.
"My only advice is to get resumes out to as many places as you can. Meet as many people as you can. And ask for advice from as many people as you can, especially older people."
Presumably, they've got experience.
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The Associated Press, the New York Times and Herald-Leader news researcher Linda Minch contributed to this article. Reach Art Jester at (859) 231-3489; 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3489; or ajester@herald-leader. com.