It could be a happy new year for students preparing to enter the job market.
College-aged job hunters have reason to rejoice. The whirling dervish of our national economy, thrown into recession after Sept. 11, is finally showing signs of recovery.
On the stock market, the NASDAQ composite index climbed almost six percent in the first three days of trading in 2002, and the Dow Jones industrial average made a two percent gain.
A recent Reuters news story suggested that holiday shopping was strong throughout the Christmas season, and that consumer confidence is slowly climbing. As a result, reports such as the annual Job Outlook survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers hint that while the current job market isn’t as strong as it was this time last year, it’s not as bad as it could be.
“There will be job opportunities for members of the class of 2002,” according to the report, which is available online. “But you will have to start looking earlier, shake a lot of recruiters’ hands and make your search a priority.”
For University of Memphis students like junior broadcast journalism major Evan Nelson, however, such a job climate suits them just fine.
“I’ve been told by a lot of people in the business that it’s tough to break into broadcast news,” he said, “especially sports, which is what I want to do.”
Nelson says he wants to be a news reporter or sports broadcaster in a “good, small TV market” when he finishes school.
“As far as the job market goes now,” he said, “I feel confident that if I work hard and I’m good enough then I’ll be able to find a good job in the field.”
Freshman Christina Rural will be no stranger to hard work once she’s finished with school. The medical degree she is pursuing will require at least eight years of school plus an internship.
However, like Nelson, she says she doesn’t mind the idea of a little hard work, and she isn’t worried about pursuing a medical career because people will always need doctors.
“To me,” she says, “the job market for students right now is wide open to the ones who are willing to do what it takes to succeed.”
