No more pencils, no more books. And no more jobs. May and June are usually months of celebration and enthusiasm for college graduates as they complete their degrees and move into the job world. Only this year employment opportunities are way down compared to recent years, causing many twenty-somethings to not even bother looking for a job.

 

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), not even 20% of grads who have applied for a job actually have one. Last year, just over 25% of grads were lucky to find work, and in 2007, 51% were gainfully employed following commencement.

 

This year’s crop of graduates knew in advance, thanks to the ongoing recession, that finding a job wasn’t going to be easy, which might explain why fewer young people have even tried to apply for work. The NACE survey reported that only 59% of the ’09 class has started looking for jobs, compared to 64% of those in 2007 and two-thirds of last year’s group.

 -Noel Brinkerhoff

 

College Class of 2009 Graduates With Fewer Jobs in Hand (National Association of Colleges and Employers)

Got Work? College Graduates Face Toughest Job Market in Years (by John Berman, ABC News)