Published 2011-09-27T18:22:00Z”/>
Griffin Rogers
Unemployment rates are holding or rising through many parts of the U.S. as tough economic times continue to create challenges for graduates hoping to join the job market.
The Employment Development Department released data Sept. 16 showing an increase in California’s unemployment rate from 12 percent in July to 12.1 percent in August. Nonfarm payroll jobs, which include goods-producing, construction and manufacturing companies, decreased by 8,400 during the same month.
In August, 13.8 percent of Butte County was unemployed, showing an increase in unemployment over the span of a year by 0.1 percent, according to EDD data. Meanwhile, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows 9.1 percent unemployment across the nation.
At Chico State, students like Rob Corey, a senior business administration major, have had to change their career goals in order to focus on a job that is more attainable, given the current economic situation.
Corey’s initial goal was to become a stockbroker, but now he’s focusing on finding an entry-level sales position to adapt to the times, he said.
Corey attended the Career Fair, held in the Bell Memorial Union auditorium Wednesday, to look for some options before he graduates in spring 2012. One of the employers he talked with was the Internal Revenue Service, an organization in the middle of a hiring freeze.
James Starmer, director of the Career Planning and Placement Office, said the freeze shows an indication of how hard economic times are because places like the IRS have been a reliable job market for years.
“I can’t even remember a time when the IRS wasn’t hiring,” Starmer said.
The mood in Washington is that no one really knows what’s happening with the budget, he said. Because of this uncertainty, employers don’t want to hire.
At the university, Starmer sees the impact of the rough economy through fewer jobs being offered to certain majors such as engineering and construction. These jobs, along with government positions, are seeing some of the biggest cuts due to budget, he said
Still, trying to land a job after college isn’t a lost cause.
Journalism majors at Chico State have a 98 percent job placement rate after graduation, said Susan Wiesinger, chair of the journalism department.
Nursing and accounting are providing promising outlooks as well, and speech pathology has a 100 percent placement rate, Starmer said.
However, the Career Center doesn’t keep track of job placement data.
“For me to try to conjure up a replacement rate would just be inaccurate,” Starmer said.
The inaccuracy would result from the limited number of students who actually report back to the school about their job-hunting success or failure, he said.
For instance, almost 16,000 students are enrolled at Chico State this fall, but as of last year, only 7,000 people were registered with the Career Center, he said. Additionally, the 7,000 registrants consisted of students and non-students.
Other variables such as layoffs, job changes or long periods of unemployment could skew placement percentages as well, if they were collected, Starmer said. About 5 percent of the 7,000 registrants are graduates who come back to the Career Center because they need help finding a job.
The unemployment rate for graduates with a bachelor’s degree or higher was 6.3 percent in California as of August 2011, according to research from EDD.
The EDD was one the 52 employers participating in the recent Career Fair and is an organization that hired 1,500 employees from 2009 to 2010 in order to help the unemployment problem, said Recruitment Coordinator Param Dhoot.
“When things get bad in regards to unemployment, we have to ramp things up,” Dhoot said.
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<strong>Griffin Rogers can be contacted at</strong>
<em>[email protected]</em>
