2012 college grads enter improving job market

Jose Luis Magana

(AP) NEW YORK - The class of 2012 is leaving college with something that many graduates since the start of the Great Recession have lacked: jobs.

To the relief of graduating seniors -- and their anxious parents -- the outlook is brighter than it has been in four years. Campus job fairs were packed this spring and more companies are hiring. Students aren't just finding good opportunities, some are weighing multiple offers.

In some ways, members of the class of 2012 got lucky. They arrived on campus in September 2008, the same month that Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed, touching off a financial crisis that exacerbated the recession.

On campus, they were largely insulated from the collapsing U.S. economy. While older brothers and sisters graduated into a dismal job market, they took shelter in chemistry, philosophy and literature classes.

They used their college years to prepare for the brutal realities of the job market that would await them. They began networking for jobs much earlier, as freshmen in some cases. They pursued summer internships not simply as resume boosters, but as gateways to permanent jobs. And they developed more realistic expectations about landing a job in the ideal place and at the ideal salary.

On campuses across the country, spirits are more upbeat this spring, and the employment outlook is especially promising, according to interviews with three dozen seniors and career center directors.

"It's just been such a dramatic change from what we saw in 2008," says Mercy Eyadiel, who oversees career development at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. Back then, openings disappeared overnight and companies were calling recent graduates to rescind offers. "It was a very bad, ugly situation."

The job market remains tough, even for those graduating from the best universities. Hiring is not back to its pre-recession level and plenty of seniors are leaving campuses without jobs. Yet this year's graduates are less likely to face the disappointment of moving back in with mom and dad, or being forced to work at a coffee shop to pay off loans.

"I was nervous that my college degree would go to waste," says Laura Mascari, who arrived on the University of Delaware's Newark campus in the fall of 2008. Mascari, who received two job offers, will work in marketing -- her major -- for chemicals giant DuPont.

Between September 2008 and August 2010, 6.9 million American jobs were eliminated. In the last year and a half, 3.1 million jobs have been created. The strengthening job market has made a big difference to seniors who are job-hunting in their final semester.

The unemployment rate for college graduates 24 and under averaged 7.2 percent from January through April. That rate, which is not adjusted for seasonal factors, is down from the first four months of 2011 (9.1 percent), 2010 (8.1 percent) and 2009 (7.8 percent.) For all Americans, the unemployment rate is 8.1 percent.

Wake Forest senior Lesley Gustafson started her job search during her freshman year.

She met with a career counselor to discuss her goals. Gustafson picked a double-major -- computer science and political science -- that made her more marketable. And she found internships every summer that helped her build skills and a network of professionals to offer advice. Gustafson was aggressive in other ways, too: she took part in mock interviews offered by the campus career center so that she'd be better prepared for real employer interviews.

Gustafson's work paid off. In March, she was offered a job with consulting firm Accenture.

"I knew I would find something," Gustafson says. "I was more nervous finding something that I would be interested in rather than having to take a job just to take one."

College career centers across the country are reporting seeing more students and seeing them earlier.

At the University of Chicago, just 46 percent of freshman sought advice in the 2008-2009 school year. This year, it is expected to be more than 80 percent.

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[nfission]

Where?

[spytheweb]

There are no jobs and the economy and job market are not improving. Millions are still unemployed and the ones no longer receiving unemployment benefits have just been dropped off the edge of the earth and are no longer counted. This is a election year so the numbers have to be cooked. College is at present just another way to in debt young people with no way to pay the banks back. While the government does nothing to solve the problem. America has yet to see how bad it's going to get. Just yet until the pro business anti people republicans are back in power.

[geezerdude]

McDonalds is hiring and Burger King just built a new Restaurant up the road. Things are looking good. Now if I can just buy a house for $200 a month, I am set.

[anonymous010]

"In some ways, members of the class of 2012 got lucky."

In 'some' ways?! They've been sheltered from the economy throughout the recession. There's no downside to their position. They went in when it started, and are coming out now that it's over. They haven't suffered through any of it. They were completely lucky.

On the other hand, the rest of us have had to struggle and settle for what we could get in the dismal markets of the past four years. People with the experience and education got passed up for the cheap and trainable. While it wasn't impossible to find a job in that market (I did it), it came down to the bare wire for me. I got my current job right before I would've had to have moved back in with my parents - and I was lucky. These kids coming into the market now don't have any clue how good they've got it.

I'm not bitter, though. :-p

[Lucky12345678]

With Boomers retiring, penalty of jobs will become available over the course of the next 7 years.If fact it is a win win situation because the companies will hire at lower starting salaries and most have done away with their traditional pension system!!! Forgot, because of lower costs the stock market should also get a boost and so it's a win win win scenario ...

[autonomyandsolidarity]

I guess it's easy to make the best of the current economic situation many of us recent grads were forced into when you're fully employed and have been for quite a while. Anyone who is interested should check out my commentary:
http://autonomyandsolidarity.wordpress.com/2012/05/13/unemployment-welcome-to-the-real-world/

[credibility2]

The other day, the City Colleges of Chicago, a two-year institute, gloated about graduating some 3,300 student with Associate's Degrees. Mayor Emanuel sang their high praises as well. In June 2011 a scathing report came out about the unpreparedness these students were given the fact that most performed at remedial levels in both math and English. How these students were even allowed to get into college, let alone graduate speaks to a totally diminished acceptance of such abysmal statistics. We no long expect college graduates to have excellence in intelligence, we've reduced our levels of expectation to less than mediocrity. Last year it was revealed that the majority of Detroit residents were functionally illiterate. Given these grim statistics, America hasn't any future with this continuing trends; it has lost its educational way.

[mdntoil]

Totally, totally agree. Post-high school education has become big business, and they don't care what or if the kids learn. They just want the money.

[Pope_AlGore]

"[The unemployment rate] in the first four months of 2011 (9.1 percent), 2010 (8.1 percent) and 2009 (7.8 percent.) For all Americans, the unemployment rate is 8.1 percent."

Hey kids, it's unfortunate but these "journalists" are nothing but Obama-cheerleaders, happily regurgitating Obama's lies to you. The only way Obama could adjust his jobless numbers below double-digits was by IGNORING anyone that's unemployed and fell off the welfare roles because their benefits ran out. Yes, they're STILL unemployed -- Obama just ignores them now (as shown in the stats that the Obama administration puts together... and the leftist media parrots).

If Obama had to use the same "participating labor force" numbers that Clinton and Bush used, Obama's TRUE unemployment rate would be 11% right now. If you use the U6 number (referring to everyone unemployed and UNDERemployed), Obama has an unemployment rate ranging around 15% - 18%. So if things seem dismal, it's not your imagination. It would just be nice if the leftist US media actually did some analysis... instead of just reading from the White House talking points that Obama gives them to obediently recite on demand.

[democracy8]

Obama IS using the same numbers. The formula to calculate them hasn't changed since Reagan.

[murkymook]

McDonalds is hiring.

[milt3726]

According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, or the administration is talking about. As many of our readers already know, the official unemployment rates released monthly by the BLS (U-3, U-6) fail to account for one very key figure - those individuals who are no longer in the labor force. The number of those folks - the ones that don't matter anymore because counting them would hinder the President's reelection bid - is absolutely staggering for what is supposed to be the engine of the global economy and the world's only super power: Were it not for people dropping out of the labor force, the unemployment rate would be well over 11%. n the last year, the civilian population rose by 3,604,000. Yet the labor force only rose by 1,315,000. Those not in the labor force rose by 2,289,000. The Civilian Labor Force fell by 164,000. Those "Not in Labor Force" increased by 310,000. If you are not in the labor force, you are not counted as unemployed. Those "Not in Labor Force" is at a new record high of 87,897,000.
Don't be fooled by the fake numbers the Obama Administration gives out. The Hope and Change is just Hype and Blame. If you are an American and care about the future of this country and the children who will be left with this mess than do the right thing and vote this Blamer/Complainer/Campaigner-in-Chief out of office!