Is your 2012 college grad employed?

Parents Forum
1

<p>It's been less than six months since the class of 2012 got their degrees. However, I've had the sense that this class was going to have better luck getting decent jobs than the classes of the previous few years. </p>

<p>My D graduated last June and has worked every day since. She had a temporary job on campus for the summer and then began a full time job (with vacation time and benefits) last month. All of her friends seem to be gainfully employed as well even though they all have liberal arts degrees. They are working in labs, a dentist office (while applying to dental school), software companies, political campaigns and other professional settings.</p>

<p>My D is working for a company that provides college counseling and test preparation services to high school students. She was our youngest, so she went on every college tour with her older brothers and had her college list complied by the time she was in the 6th grade. I guess she's going to be able to put all that college visit information to good use!</p>

2

<p>What part of the country are you in? Different parts of the country could have different unemployment rates.</p>

3

<p>Thankfully, yes! Moves out there on Sunday, starts his job on Monday, though he has been doing stuff for them all summer. Is married, too! :eek:</p>

4

<p>Yes. He got a full-time job, with benefits, at the same place where he’d interned his last 2 years in college. I guess they liked him.</p>

5

<p>I don’t have a 2012 grad but a coworker does - very good GPA from a well-known regional tech school with an engineering degree but in a major where you need a graduate degree. He’s had one interview for a job outside his major (they want quantitative skills) but he isn’t a perfect match and it would require moving to a high cost-of-living area in another part of the country.</p>

<p>The unemployment rate in my area is 5.4% (for my state) and 6.1% for the neighboring state where there are more jobs (relatively speaking). It’s better than the national average and people are spending here but there is some economic unease.</p>

<p>The August employment report which came out yesterday showed job growth but barely and the number isn’t even enough jobs to keep up with population growth.</p>

<p>“The Labor Department said Friday that employers added just 96,000 jobs in August, down from 141,000 in July and too few to keep up with population growth. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent, but only because many people gave up looking for work, so they were no longer counted as unemployed.”</p>

<p>“The latest numbers were “downright dismal,” TD Economics senior economist James Marple said in a description echoed by many others.”</p>

<p>[United</a> States Labor Department: Hiring slows in August - The Reporter](<a href=“http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_21497305/united-states-labor-department-hiring-slows-august]United”>http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_21497305/united-states-labor-department-hiring-slows-august)</p>

<p>The unemployment rate actually dropped from 8.3% to 8.1% nationally but that’s because almost 400,000 people stopped looking for work. The job issue has affected young adults far harder than older workers.</p>

<p>“There were 453,000 fewer young adults with jobs in August than in July. But despite that plunge, only 27,000 more young people were looking for new jobs. Most apparently stopped looking and left the labor force. And those numbers take into account seasonal factors such as younger workers returning to school.”</p>

<p>“The unemployment rate for young adults rose to 16.8% from 16.4% in July.”</p>

<p>[Young</a> adults drop out of the job market - Sep. 7, 2012](<a href=“http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/07/news/economy/young-adults-jobs/index.html]Young”>Young adults drop out of the job market)</p>

<p>“The proportion of people ages 16 to 24 in the workforce fell more than 1 percentage point last month to 54.1 percent. That’s the lowest “participation rate” for that group in 57 years. Many are likely staying in school or returning to school, hoping for a turnaround in the job market later.”</p>

<p>“By contrast, the participation rate for workers 55 and older rose from 40.2 percent to 40.4 percent. The rate for those 25 to 54 was unchanged at 81.4 percent.”</p>

<p>[US</a> economy adds 96K jobs; unemployment rate falls to 8.1 pct. as more people end job searches - The Washington Post](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/us-economy-adds-96k-jobs-unemployment-rate-falls-to-81-pct-as-more-people-end-job-searches/2012/09/07/488b6892-f93b-11e1-a93b-7185e3f88849_story.html]US”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/us-economy-adds-96k-jobs-unemployment-rate-falls-to-81-pct-as-more-people-end-job-searches/2012/09/07/488b6892-f93b-11e1-a93b-7185e3f88849_story.html)</p>

<p>“There are other subtle and discouraging aspects of this report for the young. One of the only industries to add significant numbers of workers was food services, which accounted for 28,300 of the 95,000 total new jobs. Restaurant and fast food work is usually a bastion for teenage employment. If that sector is growing, and young people still can’t find employment, it may mean that older workers are now out-competing them for low wage jobs.”</p>

<p>[An</a> Awful Jobs Report for Young People - Jordan Weissmann - The Atlantic](<a href=“An Awful Jobs Report for Young People - The Atlantic”>An Awful Jobs Report for Young People - The Atlantic)</p>

6

<p>Yup. My s had several job offers and selected one by Oct. of his sr yr incollege (almost a year ago) Started in June. Seems happy.</p>

7

<p>Mine too. Both of my 2012 graduates have jobs in their chosen field with benefits. Yay!</p>

8

<p>My 2012 history major will start her consulting job in a few weeks. She got the offer in November, but chose a later start date to allow travel over the summer. All of her friends had jobs in the Northeast by the end of the summer. Their fields include nursing, business, scientific research and journalism. One friend started as an unpaid casting agent in NYC, but recently landed a job as the assistant casting director for a broadway show. I think that things are loooking up.</p>

9

<p>No graduate here for a few years but all my friend’s kids had jobs lined up before they graduated. Obviously a small sample but none of them had degrees in STEM fields and still landed good jobs. One even had the dreaded Communications degree and got a fab job with Nielsen doing analysis.</p>

10

<p>My guess is that only people whose children ARE employed are likely to post here. :wink: My 2012 humanities grad is employed, in her field, although at a less interesting job than she would have liked. She did have internships and previous work experience.</p>

<p>Most of her friends are not employed, however, or they are working retail type jobs while waiting for their big break. One of her good friends turned down an offer shortly after graduation because it seemed “too boring and clerical” and she hasn’t been able to find anything else since. (They’re all in NY City, fwiw.)</p>

11

<p>Daughter of a neighbor is a 2012 communications grad and has landed as a FT paid editor for a local sports website.</p>

<p>Several of S1’s friends are on the five year path, having changed majors or taken a term off of school. </p>

<p>S1 had several offers and is still getting calls from recruiters. The joys of being a STEM major! I can only hope S2 ('14, IR and Russian) lands something FT w/bennies when he graduates.</p>

12

<p>Another grad with a consulting job (in DC). Similar to momjr, she had the offer in October. IR/econ major. Good pay and benefits, she will stay a few years and re-evaluate whether she wants grad school in economics or an MBA paid for by her employer.</p>

13

<p>Son’s girlfriend graduated from Penn- good grades, good internships and struggled to get a job in international relations in DC or anywhere else. Just landed one (DC) a few weeks ago. Not a huge salary but it’s in her field.</p>

14

<p>For those with current seniors-- NOW is the time they should be attending those campus job fairs and sending out job applications. For those of us posting here (and I suspect stradmom is right, this is a biased sampling) our kids had job offers in October-November last year.</p>

15

<p>Or even earlier. She visited a job fair in the spring of her junior year, from which she was invited to a September 2-day event which resulted in her hiring!</p>

16

<p>I think that the title of the thread tends to bring out those with an affirmative response where the old thread on son is graduating without a job lined up from a few years ago brought in parents with kids that didn’t have jobs.</p>

<p>My anecdotal perspective is that I only know one student that graduated in 2012 and he doesn’t have a job yet (though he has had one interview). I know of another that graduated with a STEM degree that is working a retail job in town. I know of a third that graduate from Brown and just started working on Wall St (father found an apartment and moved him in recently).</p>

<p>I know far more students that have graduated 2009/2010/2011 and they are all employed now (some underemployed) but it took a while for many of them. The overall statistics say that it’s a tough job market for college graduates and I have to go with the statistics. Despite things being better off locally.</p>

17

<p>

</p>

<p>What field would a brand new history major be consulting in?<br>
What is their expertise?
What is their experience?
What kind of consulting company hires such consultants?<br>
What kind of company hires such consulting companies? </p>

<p>Curious.</p>

18

<p>I’m a 2012 grad and I’m starting a fulling funded PhD program in two weeks. So, I suppose that sort of counts. My friends are about evenly split between jobs and no jobs.</p>

19

<br>

<br>

<p>Well, that should be about $26,000 in pay and any other teaching stuff you pick up along with tuition and fees so that’s a real job in my book.</p>

<br>

<br>

<p>That’s in-line with national statistics.</p>

20

<p>Toblin- I think places like McKinsey hire recent grads from elite schools and sometimes prefer degrees other than business. At least that’s what I’ve heard. Didn’t Chelsea Clinton get one of those jobs right out of Stanford? Or did she go to grad school first?</p>