Graduating college seniors are painfully familiar with the present state of uncertainty and stress of the post-college job search—made all the more stressful and uncertain by what President Bush calls an economic “slowdown.”
Several of my friends (even those with good academic records and plenty of job experience) are having an especially difficult time finding jobs in their respective fields. So am I, for that matter—although my immediate plight is less pressing because I’m going to graduate school in the fall rather than going to work right away.
I’ve even heard of a number of advertised entry-level positions that just dissolved into thin air—internships and assistant jobs that simply no longer exist. Instead of hiring new employees, it seems that more companies are choosing to tighten their belts and make do with fewer people. One prospective employer told me he had never seen the job market in his field this tight.
It’s frustrating, but I suppose that’s to be expected in a “meaningful downturn.”
Recent news on the economic front is not encouraging—the unemployment rate took a giant leap upward, and, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 80,000 jobs were lost in the month of March, making it the third month in a row of negative growth.
This kind of “lull” does not bode well for college students and recent graduates looking for jobs. Especially when you factor in the plunge in house prices, which is destroying home equity at an alarming rate. Job reports don’t seem likely to improve in the near future—an unfortunate result of the “economic slump.”
While Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, recently admitted that the dreaded R-word is a possibility, his preferred word of choice right now seems to be “contracting.”
This is less comforting than irritating; the careful choice of verbiage does little to alleviate the worries of panicky investors, sub-prime mortgage holders and the unemployed. It certainly doesn’t make me feel better about my prospects of getting a job in my field over the summer.
Uncertainty is always scary. I think I speak for many of my classmates when I say it’s especially scary to be graduating from college right at the cusp of a major bout of economic “stagnation.”
But I suppose we should be encouraged—after all, maybe it’s not so bad. Economic lulls, slowdowns, slumps, and downturns aside, it could be worse.
At least it’s not a “recession.”