U.S.

Summer Job Prospects Sizzle

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

May 29, 2000 / 10:48 AM EDT / CBS/Reuters

With the U.S. unemployment rate at a 30-year low, college students appear to be finding summer jobs in less time than it takes to chug a cold beer.

Take 20-year-old Michael Carlson of Holland, Mich. With summer fast approaching, the Kalamazoo College sophomore sent out half a dozen applications to summer camps in his home state. Within days, all of the camps had offered him a job.

"I sent out five to six cover letters and I got offers almost immediately from all of them," Carlson said outside the student union on Kalamazoo's campus in western Michigan. "I got to pick what I wanted."

Last month, the unemployment rate dipped to a 30-year low at 3.9 percent. Firms are expected to keep hiring at a dizzying rate this summer, according to a recent Manpower Inc. survey that found that one in three U.S. companies plans to add workers in the third quarter.

"Anyone who wants a job today can get a job," Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Michael Moskow recently told an audience at Kalamazoo College.

Firms, including investment banks and consulting companies, are so desperate for skilled full-time workers they are pumping up their internship programs for college students to find and train prospective employees, college officials said.

"Employers are hiring students in the summer...essentially hoping to recruit college students in the future," American University's Katherine Stahl told Early Show Co-Anchor Jane Clayson. As director of that school's career center, Stahl cited an increase in internships and of paid internships.

"A lot of companies are finding it extremely difficult to find the talent they need so they are trying to find the talent earlier," said William Banis, director of career services for Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

"We've had in the last several years real significant gains in the number of positions listed with us."

The field for internships has become so competitive that employers are treating students less as coffee fetchers and more as full-time employees with hands-on work. Wages are also going up to attract students, officials said.

"Some internships that were never offered as pay positions are now paid," said Jennifer Seile of George Washington University in Washington. Employers are stressing to students that if they work for them during the summer and work hard, a full-time job will be waiting after they graduate, she said.

But competition for workers is making it hard for employers such as summer camps, swimming pools, amusement parks and fast-food restaurants that traditionally depend on students to work during the summer months to find enough employees.

Walt Disney World, the largest U.S. single-site employer, this month made the unusual move of closing its theme park for one night to throw a lavish party to attract workers.

Windsor Waterworks an Slides in Windsor, Calif., is offering bonuses to lifeguards and to employees who refer their friends to work at the water park in northern California.

"It's been tough. It's been a tough year for us," manager Ben Garcia said. "We typically get a ton of applications but this year it isn't happening."

Garcia said he has lost some of his college students who used to work at the park during the summer to high-tech companies in the area that can offer higher wages. He has already raised wages for lifeguards, but he thinks he might have to boost pay park-wide.

Garcia said he lures students with the promise of tans. "Here they're out in the sun, that's my only saving grace."

Some employers are lowering their age limits in order to find enough workers.

Howard County, Md., a Washington suburb, recently held a teen job fair and 24 firms including UPS, Burger King, Comp USA and JC Penney set up booths to find workers as young as 14, offering wages as high as $15 an hour. Last year only 13 companies showed up.

"They wouldn't be hiring teens or wouldn't be as aggressively looking for teens if the job market was average," said Cheryl Queen, marketing coordinator at Howard County's employment and training office. "Employers are scrambling."

The Gap Inc., which runs Banana Republic and Old Navy stores in addition to Gap, said that while a tight labor market "provides challenges" in finding workers, they have one major lure that is popular with teenagers: clothing discounts.

"We offer a generous discount on merchandise for both short-term and long-term employees," Gap spokeswoman Debbie Gardner said.