Students face weak job market due to economic woes

As Andrea Snyder prepares to graduate from UCLA in June, she is
finding herself facing a depleted and unfriendly job market where
employers are hesitant to hire inexperienced college graduates.

She said a history major offers a broad education apt for many
different careers, but many employers are not interested in such a
broad education.

“They pick people who already have lots of
training,” Snyder said.

Because businesses are feeling the strains of reduced income,
they are less willing to invest time and money in new employees,
Snyder said.

Following a period of massive expansion by businesses in a
variety of industries, many companies are now no longer seeking to
hire more employees.

They are merely hoping to survive.

“When companies are looking at a depressed bottom line,
they are not thinking about expanding,” said Jack Kyser,
chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development
Corporation.

Opinion is divided among economists on what causes a recession,
but they are in agreement about it hurting the ability for
graduates to secure full time employment.

“Coming out of a recession is a good thing for college
students; not coming out of a recession is your worst
nightmare,” economics Professor Roger Farmer said.

March figures from the Department of Labor indicate a reduction
of 108,000 jobs nationwide.

According to Chris Thornberg, senior economist for the Anderson
Forecast, the problem facing graduates searching for jobs is not
one of scarcity but of selectivity.

“There are always jobs ““ you just might not get the
perfect job for you,” Thornberg said.

Graduates are also faced with the question of when the market
will improve as opposed to whether it will improve.

“This year’s graduates are probably looking at a
(job) market that will be picking up in the near future,”
said Tom Lieser, another senior economist for the Anderson
Forecast.

But Lieser also conceded that the market performance has been
somewhat disappointing so far.

For many UCLA seniors, June 2003 is coming too quickly.

“It’s not a good time to start in the real world
right now,” Farmer said.

If most seniors graduated next December instead of this June,
the market may look more favorably upon their employment
prospects.

“You can expect to see things picking up in the next six
to nine months,” Farmer said.

As the market begins to improve, jobs will become more widely
available, and businesses will be more willing to hire new staff
who need to be trained.

But even as the national economy improves, California’s
economy and job market may take longer to return to normalcy, Kyser
said.

The problems of California’s job market are not
concentrated in Los Angeles, he said, but rather in the Bay Area
where deflated technology companies made a fortune in the 1990s and
then went belly-up at the turn of the millennium.

The technology boom provided an atypical abundance of jobs, so
when the dot-coms collapsed, they took many of those jobs with
them.

The problems of a crippled technology industry and high
California energy costs are being compounded by a state legislature
that is not in tune with the needs of businesses, Kyser said.

“Legislature doesn’t understand the economic food
chain,” he said. “They think businesses have unlimited
pockets, but that is not the case.”

Kyser also said legislature has implemented costs on already
struggling businesses, which will hurt the ability for college
graduates to get jobs and may drive specific industries out of
California.

“Companies in industries that are unable to raise prices
are starting to look at moving outside the state,” he
said.

Companies leaving California would even further reduce the
number of available jobs in the most populated state in the
nation.

But Lieser said Californians have an improving economy and an
improving employment situation to which to look forward.

“In California, the worst period is behind us,” he
said.

Thornberg encouraged job-searching seniors to keep their heads
on their shoulders and not to lose heart.

“There is nothing more horrifying than the job search …
but roll with the punches, keep your spirits up, and it will work
out,” he said. “Plus, you always have Mom and
Dad.”