Job Climate Warming Up – Very Slowly
Christa Nenaber, realizes the job market isn’t as good as it
used to be.
“A lot of my friends that are graduating are having trouble
finding jobs,” said Nenaber, a junior landscape architecture
major.
The current state of the job market is an issue that may plague
many students, especially those approaching graduation.
“The job market is weak for what should be an economic
recovery,” said Ron Phillips, chair of the economics department.
“It’s slow economic growth.”
Phillips said some factors contributing to the poor job market
are job exportation overseas and increased productivity in some
industries, resulting in less need for workers.
A Colorado Department of Labor and Employment report issued this
year states that only 15 percent of job vacancies in Larimer or
Weld counties require a bachelor’s degree.
“(Job vacancy) gives you some indication of the demand for jobs
relative to the supply,” Phillips said. “If you have a high
vacancy, that means they can’t find enough people to fill the
jobs.”
The report states there is a 1.1 percent vacancy rate in Larimer
and Weld counties.
The largest percentage of these vacancies, 36 percent, only
requires a high school diploma. The report also states that more
than half of the opportunities for job-seeking applicants with
bachelor’s degrees reside in health care.
Despite the report, job opportunities are not necessarily
college-specific.
“You can’t have a blanket statement about colleges because every
college has degrees that might be stronger than others,” said Ann
Malen, director of the Career Center. “And a lot of it depends also
on the kinds of opportunities students are looking for.”
Malen said most students who graduate want to remain in
Colorado.
“There’s been a significant loss of jobs (in Colorado) over the
last three years,” Malen said.
The current situation is a stark contrast to the market in
2000.
“Four years ago, people were graduating and getting multiple
offers and signing bonuses,” Malen said. “That’s typically not
happening at this point.”
The most successful jobs then were in information technology,
Malen said. These positions are now hard to come by.
Some industries, however, have remained in relatively secure
positions.
“We’ve seen a strong market in the retail area; accounting is
still doing well,” Malen said. “We’ve seen consulting starting to
come back as well, and consulting tends to be a leading-edge area
when the economy starts to turn around.”
There is more good news.
“Our on-campus recruiting numbers are ahead by about 20 percent
from last year,” Malen said. “Our full-time job postings, those are
up 7 percent, and internship postings are up 18 percent. I think
things are definitely more hopeful than they have been for the last
three years.
“We want students to be optimistic but not thinking things are
back where they were four years ago.”
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