College Degree No Shield As More Jobs Are Slashed

Last month, the number of college graduates working fell by 282,000, but the number of college graduates counted as unemployed rose by only 2,000 to 1.413 million. The Bureau of Labor Statistics deems people unemployed if they are out of a job but looking for work. The gap between the drop in the number of working college grads and the number counted as unemployed suggests to Krueger that college-educated workers are leaving the workforce by returning to school, retiring or joining the ranks of "discouraged workers" who have stopped looking for work.

David Adsit, 40, of Manassas is among those who officially dropped out of the workforce after he was laid off in the spring. He spent the summer doing volunteer work and resumed his job search a few weeks ago. Until now, the longest he had been unemployed was a week.

"Normally what I would do is post a résumé on CareerBuilder or Craigslist and I would have recruiters calling me left and right," he said. "These days finding a job is actual work. It's a full-time job."

Adsit, who started out as a mainframe programmer in the 1990s, said part of the reason he's had such a hard time is that prospective employers are demanding mastery of a wider range of tasks and security clearances that he doesn't have.

Corporate headhunters said employers can afford to be pickier than they were even just a few months ago because of a surge in qualified candidates.

"The job seekers we're seeing have stronger qualifications than we've seen in recent years based on advanced degrees, universities, and certifications and the reputations of the employers they've worked for," said Steve Kerrigan, east regional managing director of the Mergis Group, a national recruiting firm based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that specializes in placing engineering, accounting and finance and other professionals.

It's a job market that favors more experienced workers over recent graduates. David Norris, 54, of Exton, Pa., a veteran financial consultant who has an MBA, was laid off in 2001 and again last year. Seven years ago, he said, it took him 6 1/2 months to find another job. Since he lost his job in August following a merger, he has had five interviews, which yielded at least one solid prospect as a comptroller at a large manufacturing firm -- not a bad result considering he is applying for positions that pay the same low six-figure salary as his previous job or 15 to 20 percent more.

He attributes the relative ease of his most recent job search to the fact that he held a more senior position when he was laid off compared with when he was laid off in 2001. So he had access to networking groups that helped him find leads for higher-paying jobs.

For those who have had a harder time finding a job commensurate with their last one, there is another alternative to dropping out of the workforce: "trading down," or taking positions for which they are overqualified or that are completely outside of their field until the economy improves.

Recruiters who work with professionals have another name for it: being flexible.

"We're telling candidates . . . your next job may not have the title you want or the pay you want," said John Owen, Tysons Corner branch manager for Robert Half International, a national firm based in Menlo, Calif., that places accounting and finance professionals.

Then there's the barista with a biology degree or the dog walker with a master's in journalism.

Razmara, the residential building professional who was laid off, is considering trading down, too. Earlier this week, she lined up one job interview. In the meantime, though, she has bills to pay, so she has been talking to a company about delivering packages.

"I sat down and looked at my budget," she said. "I'm not one of these hoity-toity people who is going to sit here and wait for the tooth fairy."