<p>steevee, thank god I’m not the only one to find that this thread is a little tasteless. I never got laid off but I never feel the need to gloat while some friends, colleagues and fellow citizens are not as fortunate.</p>
<p>no. I misworded the initial question and changed it. What I meant is why are college students (specifically engineering majors) complaining about the economy and job market? So far, according to my career office, the full time offer rate and starting salaries are comparable to last few years and highly qualified students still get the most prestigious ibank and consulting + google microsoft amazon type of offers.</p>
<p>actually the main question is why collegeconfidential allows people of all levels of intelligence post on this forum</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>From your university’s newspaper:
[Economic</a> decline hits employer recruitment on campus | The Michigan Daily](<a href=“http://www.michigandaily.com/content/2009-03-06/economic-decline-hits-employer-recruitment-campus]Economic”>Economic decline hits employer recruitment on campus)</p>
<p>8.5% unemployment really isn’t that bad. In the depression, over 1/4 of workers lost their jobs.</p>
<p>Besides, in some european countries, like Italy and Spain and France, that are much more regulated than the US, normal unemployment %s are in the double digits.</p>
<p>“So far, according to my career office, the full time offer rate and starting salaries are comparable to last few years and highly qualified students still get the most prestigious ibank and consulting + google microsoft amazon type of offers.
From your university’s newspaper:
Economic decline hits employer recruitment on campus | The Michigan Daily”</p>
<p>not engineering, mainly LSA that’s suffering from job cuts. but the worrying and complaints seem to be across the board, including engineering students.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It sure sounds enticing! I’ve thought about starting my own firm, but I’ve heard a lot of horror stories and I also generally don’t feel like I quite have the experience to be out on my own quite yet… I might, though, once I’m settled down (geographically speaking).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Right now, they’re cheap labor. After their first raise, they’re going to be first ones in line to be kicked off the cliff. (She said cynically…)</p>
<p>There are all sorts of stats you probably don’t have. Of course the engineering career office is going to try to paint a rosy picture! It’s their job to be optimistic about getting their clients, the students, a job. So yes, most of the seniors have jobs, but maybe these students are accepting lower salaries that the students in recent graduating classes have. It could be that people are more willing to move to other locations than in the past. It’s possible that people aren’t getting as <em>many</em> of those Microsoft/Google jobs as they might have last year. Also, Michigan has a good reputation and a solid engineering program. What about the seniors at schools that don’t have the Big Ten reputation behind them? Things aren’t so great, there.</p>
<p>I just don’t think you’re getting the whole picture from where you’re sitting.</p>
<p>
It’s actually around 16%. The gov’t uses U3 and sugar coated the real UE rate.
Good news is that it’s not 25% YET, as was in the great depression…</p>
<p>[Table</a> A-12. Alternative measures of labor underutilization](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm]Table”>http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm)</p>
<p>
Same here with local and state (CA) gov’t. When they lay off engineers and consultants, then we know it’s realllllyyyy bad…</p>
<p>hey hey hey! this kid goes to Michigan, alright? Let’s give him a break now.
Those wolvereenies aren’t always the sharpest crayons in the box.</p>
<p>I agree with rheidzan on the unemployment figures. It will probably be even greater than 16% soon when you factor in people who are forced to work part time because that is all they can get and the people who gave up and no longer can get unemployment checks. The govt has also grossly understated the inflation rate as well, as they always do.</p>
<p>In engineering, the jobs have not been hit as hard as other majors. But overall, companies in engineering tend to slow down their recruitment. So there’s a slightly decrease in engineering jobs recruitment. I actually work for an engineering company and I know this because I go to college career fair to recruit every year.</p>
<p>Also, people who could not find jobs will not shout it out to everyone else to know. So obviously you will not see the negative side as much as the positive side from looking at the career center results.</p>
<p>Lol maybe something positive will come out of this and our country will get the much needed increase in engineers and scientists ;).</p>
<p>"hey hey hey! this kid goes to Michigan, alright? Let’s give him a break now.
Those wolvereenies aren’t always the sharpest crayons in the box. "</p>
<p>lol coming from a notre dame dometard?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>People will complain even if starting engineering salaries are comparable from this year to last, for salaries aren’t just supposed to be comparable, they’re supposed to be rapidly increasing. Why not? That’s what’s been happening to engineering salaries in the last few years, to the point that people began to expect it. Then, when people no longer get that, people will inevitably start to complain. It’s similar to how people generally expect to get a yearly raise from their employer, and if they don’t get it, they will complain. Heck, I remember one guy who vociferously remonstrated even after he did get a raise, but just not as large as he had expected, and his berating vituperations of management got him dangerously close to being fired. </p>
<p>Computer science salaries fell 1.4 percent while engineering salaries rose 2.2 percent, a dip from 2008 when starting salaries went up 5.7 percent.</p>
<p>[Grad</a> job outlook grim - Washington Times](<a href=“http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/13/grad-job-outlook-grim/?page=2]Grad”>http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/13/grad-job-outlook-grim/?page=2)</p>
<p>Now, one might argue that that’s just a psychological artifact. Maybe people just shouldn’t have become accustomed to rapid starting salary increases. I might tend to agree. But the fact remains that people did become accustomed to them. Hence, when you take them away, people will inevitably complain, and loudly.</p>
<p>We’ve been in a monetary inflation mode for quite some time - switching to deflation is like a jarring stop and a reverse in direction. In deflation, holding steady is a win. What complicates the situation is that the government is trying to reflate - it’s unclear who will win.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s more or less what’s happening here too. If you have a boss with enough power and s/he likes you for whatever reason, you’ll be okay. Otherwise, nobody is safe. I’ve heard of people with decades of experience with the company being laid off. I’ve also heard about cheap young talent being laid off as well. It’s rough out there.</p>
<p>I was speaking with one of the VP’s and he mentioned that this summer, our company is hiring a grand total of 0 interns. Two summers ago, we had over 50! There’s no denying the economy has had an impact in some fields.</p>
<p>I’m guessing one of the reasons MaineLonghorn is able to weather the storm better than the rest of us is because of the type of clients she has. Large developers have no new work coming out. My company was particularly hard hit because we used to do a lot of luxury residential and these were usually bought by the Wall St. / finance people.</p>
<p>Last night ASCE LA Branch had the annual student night/ job fair and I was “forced” by my boss to go and represent the although we’re not hiring FT (as a matter of fact, we may be laying off). Last year there were about 30ish companies that went to the job fair; guess how many came last night?
Ten! only 10 and 200ish students came mostly looking for FT work because they’re graduating in less than 3 months! Many also came because they just graduated within 2 years and had been laid off recently…</p>
<p>I was p1sed because I was directed to collect resumes just in case there are future openings, and b/c we might be having a round of layoff giving a false hope felt somewhat misleading…</p>
<p>After looking at the resumes, there were lots of VERY qualified ones (UCLA/USC/Cal Poly, a 3.5+, chi ep officer, asce officer, good internships), and in all honesty, I felt some of these people are better qualified than some of my co-workers who don’t do ■■■…</p>
<p>I sympathized greatly with these students and was discouraged with the overall economy and was p1sed off, frustrated, helpless… well… it was a mixed feeling. </p>
<p>Forgive me if I bring people’s hope down , but this is just a rant based on what I saw last night…</p>
<p>So anyone that still thinks everything is great today (the OP), I just wish you never have to go through such experience…</p>
<p>This passed January, UCF canceled the career fair that was planned for the spring. Everybody should know know why it was canceled. </p>
<p>I hope things get better soon.</p>
<p>Oregon unemployment rate, March 2009=12.1 up from Feb 2009=10.7%, seasonally adjusted. We are #2, Just behind #1 Michigan
<a href=“http://www.qualityinfo.org/olmisj/OlmisZine[/url]”>http://www.qualityinfo.org/olmisj/OlmisZine</a></p>