Niki King graduated from The University of Memphis in August 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in communication. Four months later, she is still looking for a job.
“It’s hard,” King said. “There’s just not a lot out there.”
The challenges King faces are in step with the challenges many other students graduating in December will also face.
Employers will hire fewer college graduates in 2002 and 2003 and at lower salaries. Those graduating with degrees in the liberal arts will be hit hardest, according to officials.
“College graduates are facing a much stiffer job market,” said Karen Hayes, director of Career and Employment Services for The U of M. “There’s a lot of fierce competition. Even the starting salaries are lower this year.”
The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) reported that starting salaries for college graduates fell in most areas in 2002 but salaries fell most in liberal arts fields.
In 2001, political science graduates saw their starting salaries drop 12.6 percent to $28,546. Psychology graduates’ average salaries dropped 10.7 percent to an average $26,738.
The average starting salaries for English graduates fell 8.3 percent to $28,438. History majors fared best among liberal arts degree holders. Their starting salaries fell by 0.7 percent to $30,395.
Although graduates with degrees in business and engineering fared better, their average starting salaries also decreased.
In comparison to last year, accounting graduates saw their starting salaries fall 0.6 percent to $39,494. Management information systems graduates’ starting salaries fell 8.8 percent to $42,524. Electrical engineering graduates’ starting salaries fell 3.3 percent to $50,391.
The numbers show that the competition for jobs has increased, meaning that college graduates must be better prepared to enter the job market, Hayes said.
“Students are more likely to try to do some networking,” she said. “Many more now work with their campus’ job placement office.”
In her office, Hayes said she has definitely seen an influx of students who are close to graduating and need help.
Hayes said Career and Employment Services help students develop job-searching skills through a student-recruiting database and mock interviews.
“With the mock interview service, we work to help develop interviewing skills,” Hayes said. “It also gives the student a better perspective of the job market.”
E-recruiting is the newest addition to the department. It is a computer program on which graduating students and alumni post their resumes. Prospective employers then have the opportunity to search the site for new recruits.
In looking for a job, Hayes recommended that graduates broaden their search to include more businesses or fields than they had previously considered, including those with the government, which she said plans to fill more than 300,000 jobs by next year.
“There is a real need in some areas,” she said. “You just have to be more willing to go for jobs you may not have considered before.”
Some of those jobs may include moving to different parts of the country.
The hiring of college graduates is down in most parts of the country, including the South, where employers project a 1.5 percent drop, according to NACE.
In the Northeast, college graduate hiring is expected to drop by 8.1 percent, and in the West, employers will drop their college hiring by 15.7 percent.
The only area of the country that is expected to increase the hiring of college graduates in the next year, according to NACE, is the Midwest, where employers are expected to hire 11.2 percent more college graduates.
For King, who wants to work on the West Coast, the decision is not as cut and dry as moving to the market.
“I am having to broaden my search,” she said. “But the only places that are hiring are the ones nobody wants to live in - like Kansas. I guess I’ll have to keep trying.”
