Economy Leaves More of This Season's Graduates With No Job, No Immediate Plan

Seas of caps and gowns. Eagerly turned tassels. Crowds of proud families. And an economic recession that has many graduates from the area's universities still searching for a job, feeling anxious and vulnerable about the future.

Student strategies have ranged from tirelessly sending out dozens of résumés to waiting out the storm in graduate schools. Some say they are lucky to find an extended internship.

Emily Petro, 22, of Allentown, Pa., said she applied to more than 40 companies. The public communication major interned at Global Events Partners during the fall and spring of her senior year at American University. She said she used job search sites including Monster.com, Career Builder, Craigslist and Career America, but nothing came of it.

"A lot of us ended up in training and internship programs," said Petro, who hopes to work in event planning but accepted an offer to enter a five- to six-month training program with the Washington Nationals in premium client services. "I'm lucky that I have what I have."

Typically, 10 to 15 percent of members of a graduating class haven't nailed down a job or plans for graduate school, said Paul Villella, chief executive of HireStrategy, a recruiting and staffing company based in Reston. But after contacting between eight and 10 area schools this year, he said, "about 35 to 40 percent are graduating without jobs or a predetermined plan in place."

The National Association of Colleges and Employers said in its spring "Job Outlook" that employers plan to hire 22 percent fewer new graduates from the class of 2009 than they hired from the class of 2008.

Sable Sweeper of Passaic, N.J., a sociology major who is graduating from Georgetown University this weekend, is delaying a serious job search while she applies to a paralegal studies program.

"I came here thinking when I come out of Georgetown, people will look at my level of education and see my skills," she said. "But what we're going into -- there are no jobs.

"And even the people who do have jobs, they are so nervous because companies are making cuts," she added. "The situation is so bad that now even the people with jobs know that if they make one little mistake, they can be gone."

Mike Schaub, executive director of Georgetown's Career Education Center, said he encourages students to be flexible about their career options. "We tell them to be open to new fields and to be realistic," to look at smaller companies and consider different job locations, he said.

"This year's class seemed more anxious," Schaub said. "I've been seeing helplessness and hopelessness. Some [students] took the lack of internships and jobs personally."

Some students had the added stress of worrying about their parents' finances.