anyone have concerns about the decrease in chances of getting paid coops in the future - DS considering Northeastern - engineering.
The earliest a student entering this fall would go on coop is January, 2022, the spring semester of sophomore year. So at this point the job market at that time is anyone’s guess.
During the Great Recsssion of 2008-2009 some employers cancelled coops while others increased coop hiring. The reason being that a coop position is for 6 months and the company is not making a long term commitment like they are when hiring a career employee.
While co-op’s generally mirror the economy, I would not be concerned long term with engineering job prospects. Also, as far as I’m aware, every engineering co-op is paid (any typically pretty well) and many fields will not be affected by current economic factors (civil engineering for example). I might have a bit more concern if we are talking either co-op’s in this current cycle (Fall 2020 co-op’s are of course seeing hiring freezing in all the chaos) but by the time your son is looking for co-op’s it will be 2022 and this will have had years to play out.
If the economy as a whole is strongly affected, a good co-op program is only going to help someone gain more experience before entering a weaker job market. If co-op’s are struggling, imagine trying to find internships or full-time jobs with much less support or experience on your resume.