For College seniors beginning their job searches, the new data does not look good.
From 2000 to 2002, the rates of College students who receive full-time employment directly after graduation dipped 15 percent -- from 68 percent to 53 percent -- according to surveys conducted by Penn's Career Services and completed by College graduates.
The rates of graduates who opted to enroll in graduate school programs after college increased 8 percent -- from 20 percent in 2000, to 24 percent in 2001 and to 28 percent in 2002.
The number of those still seeking employment after college rose from 7 percent to 11 percent between 2000 and 2002, while the average College graduate salary in that time period has seen a net drop from $39,065 to $36,797.
However, Penn career counselor Ruth Shoemaker said yesterday at one of the three "Liberal Arts Job Search Workshops" that there is no need for college students to fret quite yet.
In fact, she recommended that the crowd of over 30 seniors gathered in Houston Hall's Golkin Room not even begin sending out resum‚s until the spring semester and to use the fall only for preparation.
"I think everyone feels like everyone else around them knows what they want to do, and that's not the case," Shoemaker said.
"I'm a little nervous," College senior Rachel Bybee said. "I'm graduating in December, and I want to make sure I can use all the resources available at Penn so I can be sure to find a good job."
"I've had a lot of friends that have graduated in the past few years that have had trouble finding jobs," she added.
With the not-so-hot economy right now, students are starting to explore other options for after graduation, such as graduate school and one-year internship programs.
But Shoemaker said that her "hope is that the economy will pick up a little bit between the fall and the spring." As for now, Career Services is "seeing flat hiring rates from last year to this year."
"Students seem pretty stressed... and I think the economy is a major factor in that," Shoemaker said, adding that an additional responsibility of the Career Services Center is now working towards helping students diffuse that stress.
Some students, however, said that they are not too fearful of the market.
"I feel like the economy doesn't affect my position at all," said College senior Brennan Quinn, who is looking to pursue a career related to either biology or ecology.
"Other opportunities that I'm looking for are relatively stable... my number one goal is just to do something that I love," Quinn said.
Shoemaker distributed a rough timeline for the job search, which included steps such as fine-tuning resum‚s and cover letters, asking for recommendations, taking career assessment tests distributed by Counseling and Psychological Services and forming networks either with Penn alumni or others in your field of interest.
Also, she recommended familiarizing oneself with the Career Services Web site and library and meeting with a Career Services counselor. She added that job fairs, want ads and companies' specific Web sites can be very enlightening.
College senior Lynn Huang said that she came to the workshop out of pure "curiosity" and to find some extra information on "what to do if nothing else goes right."
Other attendees said that they were a bit more desperate than that.
"I need a job!" College senior Amanda Jones exclaimed.
However, she noted after the workshop that "instead of drowning in uncertainty and panic, now I can be like, 'OK, this is what I need to do.'"
Career Services will also be holding additional workshops and forums throughout the year that will be listed on their Web site.
