[Sixstrings]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.
A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge.

Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.

An analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press lays bare the highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor's degrees.

Opportunities for college graduates vary widely.

While there's strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder. Median wages for those with bachelor's degrees are down from 2000, hit by technological changes that are eliminating midlevel jobs such as bank tellers. Most future job openings are projected to be in lower-skilled positions such as home health aides, who can provide personalized attention as the U.S. population ages.

Taking underemployment into consideration, the job prospects for bachelor's degree holders fell last year to the lowest level in more than a decade.

"I don't even know what I'm looking for," says Michael Bledsoe, who described months of fruitless job searches as he served customers at a Seattle coffeehouse. The 23-year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree.
http://news.yahoo.com/1-2-graduates-jobless-underemployed-140300522.html

This is everything I've been saying for a couple years now.

Now it's easy to say "they should all be studying medical" or "they should all be engineers" but at the end of the day, we need *millions of somewhat middle class white collar jobs* in this country. Those kinds of jobs are falling away, due to offshored backoffice work and tech-enabled efficiency / automation. It's not glamorous, but bank teller used to be a job college graduates could do and there was some opportunity to move up. ATMs cut teller jobs way down obviously, and in recent years people just bank on the internet.

Other than the ATM I rarely go to my bank at all. I just have no reason to, I can do it all over the internet.

Not all jobs can be engineering jobs, we need an economy with a lot of a good jobs that a decently educated / intelligent person can do and at least make enough money to pay rent on an apartment -- working as a waiter or Walmart cashier or other retail clerk, it doesn't even pay rent.

[seenmostofit]

Opportunities for college graduates vary widely.

[b]While there's strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder.

This is everything I've been saying for a couple years now.

Other than the artificial bubble during the housing sunup during the middle of the last decade, haven't the above statements been pretty much true for like a long, long time?

[AgentR11]

But that bubble created the expectation in people that a BA in NeoMacheavelean Literature would grant them a solid, career path job after college.

The bubble is gone, but its legacy remains everywhere, including in graduate expectations.

Prebubble days, I had to actually convince my parents that a degree in Mathematics wasn't fluff. It didn't say XYZ Engineering, thus they were certain I was doomed to donut shop wages... (Comp Sci at the time was still a newborn babe as a recognized degree name, back in the day that is, uphill in the snow, both ways, carrying a PDP 11's teletype terminal in the pickup truck! Then they gave us VT100's and we were GREATFUL!!)

No, seriously, liberal arts degrees like those are what debutantes are supposed to pursue.

[confusegrass]

Regardless of whatever is suggested to students picking degree programs, half of graduates are jobless, underemployed, or have job(s) outside their field. I'm 22 and jobless right now. I was going to school (in the humanities, fyi), but decided to drop out recently because there was no point. I had increasing debt due to students loans and saw no way of being able to pay it off once graduated. I am simply joyous I got out with only with only $20,000 of debt instead of $40,000. I pity the souls who are in debt of 80 or 100 grand with no prospects of applying their knowledge or building a career in their field. The fact is opportunity in America is dead.

P.S. You cannot declare bankruptsy due to student debt like you can with a home or business lone.

[seenmostofit]

But that bubble created the expectation in people that a BA in NeoMacheavelean Literature would grant them a solid, career path job after college.

The bubble is gone, but its legacy remains everywhere, including in graduate expectations.

That is unfortunate, and I will bet that expectations are now being adjusted back to pre-Boom levels, rather than something fundamentally different than it was before.

No, seriously, liberal arts degrees like those are what debutantes are supposed to pursue.

They will learn I imagine. The sooner the better hopefully.

[SeaGypsy]

"I don't even know what I'm looking for," says Michael Bledsoe, who described months of fruitless job searches as he served customers at a Seattle coffeehouse. The 23-year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree.

I have a brother who did the same degree here in Australia in 08. It took him nearly a year to find a job. It was out of left field, assisting a charity to turn it's book donations into a book store/ cafe. It worked. He now leads 3 staff and 30-40 volunteers, mostly sorting the piles of books which come in every day. A lot of the volunteers have writing degrees but are unable to get work. Most of his co-grads are either out of work or doing something completely unrelated to their degree.

I have no formal education beyond high school, I am 1 year older than my brother, but I average around $56kpa. I have 4 resumes. One for arts, glassblowing and aboriginal art gallery management. One for health and disability services with a focus on mental health support work and training/ work placement for disabled. One for tutoring at University level and one for farm, garden and building labor work. When I need more work or a new job, I re-write my resumes and fire them off to about 10 employers a day, with cover letters individual to the job. So far I have not been out of work unwillingly for more than 2 weeks.

The situation is far less bad here as for the economy in general, with about 6% unemployment. We have more of a problem with getting enough skilled workers than we do with un-placed grads.

I remember reading on tech advances during high school, with employers predicting that in the future, adaptable skills will be the thing in demand. Adaptable people with adaptable skills. This seems to be what has happened. The days of people coming out with a degree and jumping straight into paid work in that profession seem to be over. But how many young graduates are making sure their resume has more related to their chosen field than a degree? My advantage over these is my experience. If they had the degree and the experience, I could not take their job.

Reality is getting tougher. We all expected this and now it is here. If you are serious about a career, you best do something in your spare time other than getting smashed with the sorority. You need a proper resume with some real life work experience in it, showing you are seriously motivated and can find and develop opportunities. I doubt the kid with the writing degree would have spent 2 years serving coffee if s/he had applied his/her energy to career development. Writing letter to newspapers and online blogs, social commentary, volunteering at the local library, offering a local business to re-design their menu... etc.

The lack of imagination and application will keep job seekers at the bottom of the applicant pile, regardless of a degree. Personally I would choose to move anywhere, rather than sit around moping about being unable to enter my profession. I would also (and have done) take any job at all if necessary, whilst maintaining my work search.

It is sad (?) that not everyone is going to be able to afford a middle class lifestyle, that is a fact and it's not going to go away. Reality is that just choosing to study something is no guarantee of work in that field. Competition is growing whilst opportunity is shrinking. Opportunity is not 'dead' in the USA or most places. Negativity is a common mindset with the long term unemployed and it is their worst enemy.

Work hard, think outside the box, always look for opportunity.

[AgentR11]

"I don't even know what I'm looking for," says Michael Bledsoe, who described months of fruitless job searches as he served customers at a Seattle coffeehouse. The 23-year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree.

I waited to see if I'd get less angry at this line... but it is just not happening.

A job at Starbucks is EXACTLY the kind of job someone with that degree should hope to land. Its perfect. You see and talk to lots of different kinds of people; nothing bad happens to your fellow employees if you get up one morning and decide to relocate by bicycle to another city just to see something new, all the while producing volumes and volumes of prose and notes and observations and drawings and sketches and collected bits of leaves, or at least photos of leaves; all made incredibly convenient by the digital landscape we live in.

W!T!F!

Did the guy want to write, or not?

I wanted to write.
I didn't want to starve. I don't like starving.
Thus, I'm a mathematician.

Greatest intellectual calling in civilization, with the best tools ever imagined to serve it, and the guy is whining about *job*. Honestly, I can't figure out if I'm more angry at the 23 yr old guy, or the college advisers who obviously didn't explain what the life of a writer entails.

EPIC FAIL.

[Fishman]

Agent, you are spot on.

[Lore]

"I don't even know what I'm looking for," says Michael Bledsoe, who described months of fruitless job searches as he served customers at a Seattle coffeehouse. The 23-year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree.

I waited to see if I'd get less angry at this line... but it is just not happening.

A job at Starbucks is EXACTLY the kind of job someone with that degree should hope to land. Its perfect. You see and talk to lots of different kinds of people; nothing bad happens to your fellow employees if you get up one morning and decide to relocate by bicycle to another city just to see something new, all the while producing volumes and volumes of prose and notes and observations and drawings and sketches and collected bits of leaves, or at least photos of leaves; all made incredibly convenient by the digital landscape we live in.

W!T!F!

Did the guy want to write, or not?

I wanted to write.
I didn't want to starve. I don't like starving.
Thus, I'm a mathematician.

Greatest intellectual calling in civilization, with the best tools ever imagined to serve it, and the guy is whining about *job*. Honestly, I can't figure out if I'm more angry at the 23 yr old guy, or the college advisers who obviously didn't explain what the life of a writer entails.

EPIC FAIL.

Creative writing is usually a requisite for a career in copywriting, media and advertising not necessarily how to write a novel and become a commercial book author. You would think jobs would abound in those markets, given our consummer based society, guess not.

[oneoblivion]

It always bothers me seeing the "well if they hadn't studied humanities or art they would have a job" argument. It's true to a degree but having an engineering or science degree does not guarantee you will have any better luck finding a decent job.

I graduated Cum Laude with a degree in network security in 2007 and volunteered or did contract work related to my degree throughout college to build resume material. (Mostly writing apps and putting together networks for small businesses that were still using paper for everything). Although rusty now I was fluent in just about every programming language out there right down to x86 assembly (I taught myself C++ when I was 13 years old). I worked my butt off during school applying concepts and running scenarios at home with a 15 system network I put together.

I expected to get a 30k a year entry level network admin job when I graduated. After three years of sending in applications all the way down to Walmart and working odd jobs I gave up and started making custom knives for a living. I sent in nearly 3000 applications in that time period and netted maybe 20 interviews.

A hard science degree gives you better chances but the jobs really aren't there in the numbers needed for most professions. I have a friend with a masters degree in biomedical engineering working as a bartender, a law grad delivering pizzas, etc.

I am just thankful I am able to quickly learn new skills or I would likely be in default on my student loans and homeless by now.

[eXpat]

But that bubble created the expectation in people that a BA in NeoMacheavelean Literature would grant them a solid, career path job after college.

The bubble is gone, but its legacy remains everywhere, including in graduate expectations.

Are you suggesting that wedding planning, fashion journalism or even, gasp! event managers are not solid, honest careers that will allow me to pay for the house, 2 cars and holidays???

[Chief]

No big surprise here. I think it would be a very good idea for any young person pursuing a degree to consider how that degree will aid them in getting a job.

Why would anyone spend 4 years in a university racking up tons of debt (student loan debt in the U.S. is now up to almost $900 billion dollars) without some expectation of a payoff in the form of a good job on the other side? They all seem surprised that their creative basket weaving degrees don't result in an analyst job at Credit Suisse.

They could always spend some time in the military. Lots of good jobs there, good job security, and they will pay off those student loans in many cases. Oh but wait-they'll demand a lot of hard work in return.

Chief

[vision-master]

Who Are You

[AgentR11]

Creative writing is usually a requisite for a career in copywriting, media and advertising not necessarily how to write a novel and become a commercial book author. You would think jobs would abound in those markets, given our consummer based society, guess not.

Unless the guy in question is a spectacular, once in a generation genius in persuasion, he's not seasoned enough to write logos on the side of gum wrappers at 23. Yes, I'm sure during the bubble, when people were desperate just to find a warm body that would show up on time, jobs were better, and maybe a 23 yr old with a degree in creative writing could get a job writing stuff (destined for a pat on the head and delivery to circular file...) But in the current economy, if you've got a paying seat, its because your commercial, written output is generating more wealth for the owners than the cost of your keep (and that's not happening with a fresh 23yr old)

He wanted an art degree. He got an art degree.
Time to pay the dues.

Oh, and I'm *not* saying, "well if they hadn't studied humanities or art they would have a job"; but rather, "they studied humanities, they are now qualified to begin to learn what it is to be an artist. They are no where near qualified enough to expect to earn a good living by art." Other than the one in ten thousand exception selected by fate, this path starts with a one or two decade pilgrimage through poverty, travel (on foot, bike, etc), observation, interaction, and thousands upon thousands of hours of uncompensated artistic production. Some will surrender and fail, some just suck, some never can produce in sync with the taste of the times despite genius. So clean fish, scoop poop, serve coffee, hammer a nail, and move on; see it all. When, on demand, you can feel and express bitterness sharp enough to slice steel, and then joy powerful enough to make a colicky child smile and coo, and make the words hold the reader while doing it; *then* you're ready.

Till then. Latte please.

[vision-master]

You live in a cube. lsol

[AgentR11]

VM... I swear, if you could add any less to a thoughtful conversation, it'd create a vacuum so powerful that the world would be sucked into it and cease to exist.

[vision-master]

Typical left brain thinking. You fail to understand, why?

[Lore]

Creative writing is usually a requisite for a career in copywriting, media and advertising not necessarily how to write a novel and become a commercial book author. You would think jobs would abound in those markets, given our consummer based society, guess not.

Unless the guy in question is a spectacular, once in a generation genius in persuasion, he's not seasoned enough to write logos on the side of gum wrappers at 23. Yes, I'm sure during the bubble, when people were desperate just to find a warm body that would show up on time, jobs were better, and maybe a 23 yr old with a degree in creative writing could get a job writing stuff (destined for a pat on the head and delivery to circular file...) But in the current economy, if you've got a paying seat, its because your commercial, written output is generating more wealth for the owners than the cost of your keep (and that's not happening with a fresh 23yr old)

He wanted an art degree. He got an art degree.
Time to pay the dues.

You lost me here. What does having to be a genius in your chosen profession have to do with getting an entry level job in it, if you have the right background skills. The subject here would be viewed as a requirement whether you're a cub reporter for your local hometown news paper, or write copy in a pool for online/offline catalogs. Communications is just as much a skill to be learned and developed as it is a gift to be exploited. The problem these days is most businesses want to do just the latter and that's not just limited to degrees in humanities.

[AgentR11]

sigh.
Understand?
Try, don't care. I don't live in a cube; my computers have to live in a cube because they require A/C and power. So when I want to use them, I come into their cube. Otherwise, I like to be outside, I think better outside.

As to left and right, a writer requires both, and very well seasoned ones at that.
Not happening at 23, except maybe for the 0.00001% truly exceptional talent.

If you would like to discuss my failures, that's fine as well, but it won't cause that fresh 23yr old to be worth hiring as an artist.

My biggest deficiencies that would result in failure as a writer are memory and word blocking. Writing is slow, slow enough that I could never sustain the lines of thought required to keep the large blocks cohesive and continuity consistent. The word blocks also interrupt the short period flow of the text, making it hard for me to consistently create text that holds a reader's attention. (can't draw either, very poor fine motor control, but I'm a decent photographer. not a complete substitute, but serviceable.)

[AgentR11]

if you have the right background skills.

He doesn't have the right background skills. That's my point. He needs to serve a lot more coffee, then nail some nails, scrub some floors, and trim some hedges.

A genius can overcome that lack. The remaining holders of "creative writing" degrees aren't even close.

nb... Citing a disappearing job offered by a disappearing media format is hardly persuasive.