Job market shrinking for college grads

May 12, 2009

Austin Business Journal

College graduates are facing an increasingly competitive job market, according to a study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

The Chicago-based outplacement firm finds several hurdles for the 2.3 million students who will earn associate or bachelor’s degrees in 2009.

First, unemployment is on the rise. Challenger, Gray & Christmas says the unemployment rate among 20- to 24-year-olds rose to 13.9 percent in March from 9.2 percent a year ago. And unemployment among 25- to 29-year-olds reached 10.9 percent in January, the highest rate since 1983.

In addition, the trend among employers is to reduce payrolls, not increase them. Challenger, Gray & Christmas says employers have announced nearly 1.5 million job cuts since July. Although monthly job reductions have declined since reaching a peak of 241,749 in January, they have not fallen below 100,000 in 2009 and may not for the remainder of the year.

And employers who are hiring are scaling back their outreach to the newly educated as the pool of available experienced workers grows. Challenger, Gray & Christmas says employer participation in campus career fairs is down 20 percent to 35 percent at the University of South Carolina, while scheduled on-campus interviews are down 15 percent to 20 percent. The Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has seen the number of companies coming to campus shrink by 15 percent over the last year.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas advises new graduates to adopt an aggressive approach. Those tactics include advertising their job search among former bosses, internship supervisors and teachers; doggedly pursuing face-to-face interviews with potential employers by visiting job sites and waiting for a meeting; and using Web research as well as networking connections such as Facebook and Twitter.