Job market shrinking for college grads - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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million students who will earn associateeor bachelor’s degrees in 2009. First, unemployment among their peers is onthe rise. Challenger, Gray Christmas says the unemployment rateamongy 20- to 24-year-olds rose to 13.9 percenr in March, from 9.2 percent a year ago, while unemploymenyt among 25- to 29-year-olds reached 10.9 percent in January, the highesf rate since 1983. Second, the current trend among employers is toreduc payrolls, not increase them. Challenger, Gray & Christma s says employers have announcednearly 1.
5 millio n job cuts since last July and while monthly job cuts have declined sincse reaching a peak of 241,7499 in January, they have not fallen beloq 100,000 in 2009 and may not for the remainder of the Finally, employers that are still hiring are scalinb back their outreach to the newly educatecd as the pool of availabled experienced workers grows. Gray & Christmas says employer participation in campus career fairs is down 20 percent to 35 percent atthe , whilew scheduled on-campus interviews are down 15 percent to 20 The at the has seen the number of companiew coming to campus shrink by approximately 15 compared to last year.
Challenger, Gray & Christmasz advises new graduates looking to crack the tightened job markeyt to adopt anaggressivr approach, including advertising their job searchn among former bosses, internship supervisors and teachers; doggedluy pursuing face-to-face interviews with potentiao employers by visiting job sites and waiting as long as it takews for a meeting; and usingg web research skills as well as networkinv connections such as Facebook and Twitter.