海角大神

US grads' job expectations on hold

The class of 2009 makes adjustments in the face of a dearth of jobs and increasing interest rates on student loans and credit cards.

Anna Fulton never thought she鈥檇 land a cushy job with a high salary and plush perks right after college. That鈥檚 never been the path open to college seniors like her, with double majors in English and German.

Last summer, as her business-major roommates at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., landed internships with high-profile consulting companies, Ms. Fulton worked at a shipping and packaging firm. She was recruited by an employee with a degree in something even less practical: Norwegian.

But as graduation nears, it鈥檚 Fulton鈥檚 roommates who are feeling insecure.

鈥淢y roommates went into [business] to get a job right away and start making a lot of money,鈥� Fulton says. 鈥淎ll of a sudden, they鈥檙e competing with people who have been working 20, 25 years who have been laid off.鈥�

In the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, Fulton and her fellow students find themselves facing a tricky financial matrix: As job opportunities dwindle, their rent and grocery bills are high, their student loan and credit-card interest rates are climbing, and a night out costs so much that they stay home.

As the class of 2009 graduates, it is rethinking spending, saving, and the Millennial Generation鈥檚 aversion to jobs that involve offering 鈥渇ries with that.鈥�

Fulton and her friends started with their spending habits. As the economy worsens and graduation looms, she says, 鈥淲e鈥檙e just not spending money on extra things. We鈥檙e cooking a lot more, eating out a lot less, and there have been a lot less random trips to Target.鈥�

These aren鈥檛 typical traits of Fulton鈥檚 generation, says Michael Hais, coauthor of 鈥淢illennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, & the Future of American Politics.鈥� 鈥淭hey鈥檝e grown up in a consumer society.鈥�

Accustomed by culture and habit to immediate gratification, the Millennials have tools most of their parents didn鈥檛, like credit cards. And now they鈥檙e paying for them with 鈥渏ust-swipe-it鈥�-induced debt. Eighty-four percent of undergraduates have at least one credit card, and median debt on those cards is up 55 percent, to $1,645, since last year, according to student lending institution Sallie Mae. A fifth of seniors carry more than $7,000 in debt.

Those are habits of an easier time, students say. 鈥淚f you go back four years ... and you ask [today鈥檚 seniors], 鈥楶icture yourself in four years. What will the economy look like?鈥� I don鈥檛 think anybody would鈥檝e guessed this,鈥� says Kyle Whitfield, a Louisiana State University senior. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like, pinch me, this isn鈥檛 really happening to me.鈥�

A journalism major and editor of the campus newspaper, Mr. Whitfield says that as a freshman, he might have hoped for four or five job offers. He barely got one: an offer for a six-month paid internship.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a common denominator鈥� across majors, Whitfield says, 鈥渁nd it鈥檚 that we鈥檙e not getting the kind of multiple job offers a lot of us would鈥檝e expected.鈥�

Even several years out, some observers say, today鈥檚 graduates may not have the jobs and financial freedom they envisioned as freshmen. The most optimistic research suggests graduates in a recession earn less than their recession-free counterparts for up to 10 years; some studies say those effects last a lifetime. While experts say it鈥檚 too soon to tell how the crisis might permanently alter job prospects and spending habits, all agree that it isn鈥檛 a short-term problem.

Graduates need 鈥渢o keep their expectations in place while they endure the next couple of years,鈥� says Phil Gardner, who directs the Collegiate Employment Research Institute (CERI).

CERI鈥檚 2009 collegiate hiring report calls the entry-level job market a place of 鈥渜uiet desperation.鈥� Seven percent of the companies surveyed say they won鈥檛 hire anyone out of college this year 鈥� more than double the 2008 number. And 49 percent of companies say they鈥檒l take fewer college grads this year than last.

That means, career advisers say, that this year鈥檚 graduating class may have to change more than its spending habits. It may be time for a seismic shift in this generation鈥檚 sense of entitlement.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to have to deal with a lot of rejection, and it鈥檚 this generation ... that hasn鈥檛 had to deal with much of that in their lifetime,鈥� says Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart, a career consulting service. 鈥淭he survival jobs 鈥� working at J Crew, bartending 鈥� those jobs are tough. It鈥檚 very competitive now to get a job at Starbucks. Experienced people are fighting for these retail jobs to stay afloat.鈥�

[Editor's note: This company's name was corrected.]

And there鈥檚 another problem young grads face: a backlog of baby boomers.

Mr. Gardner says that even in recent economic downturns, college grads got offers because companies wanted to be ready for the boomer retirement exodus. 鈥淏oomers ... have put that card away for awhile,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey simply aren鈥檛 retiring, and they aren鈥檛 giving any indication of when they are going to retire.鈥�

But some students say the collision of macro-level circumstances gives them some choices they didn鈥檛 expect.

Ellen Erikson, a photography major at Seattle University, says the economic uncertainty frees her to think about taking a teaching fellowship in Austria, or joining the Peace Corps. Nomin Chuluunkhuu, a senior at the University of San Francisco, is planning to open a pub in her native Mongolia. Scotty Fay, who graduated in December from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, is waiting for Peace Corps marching orders, hoping to ride out the next 27 months practicing French and teaching biology in Guinea.

Mark Cannice, who runs the entrepreneurship program at the business school of the University of San Francisco, says Ms. Chuluunkhuu is not alone. His students, he says, are sensing that 鈥渁ny implicit contract between employers and employees鈥� isn鈥檛 as strong as it used to be, which makes 鈥渢he risk of entrepreneurship relative to a corporate job ... not as great as it may have seemed a year ago.鈥�

Students say that none of the looming challenges will feel real until they鈥檝e donned the cap and gown. 鈥淲e鈥檙e a little bit in a bubble of college and [the economic situation] isn鈥檛 really a reality yet,鈥� says Chloe Chessen, a psychology major in Seattle.

Ms. Fay says she wouldn鈥檛 worry about the job market even if she didn鈥檛 have a Peace Corps placement. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we鈥檝e realized how bad it is because we鈥檙e so cushioned,鈥� she says of herself and her three brothers, all in college. 鈥淭hat comfort comes from knowing that if we excel and we鈥檙e able to keep ourselves working, we鈥檒l be OK, we hope, because we haven鈥檛 experienced anything different than that,鈥� says Fay, who worked two jobs on top of her full-time course load.

Whitfield says student optimism, like so much about the impact of the economic crisis, is all relative. The feeling on his campus, he says, is that most seniors are fortunate to live in Louisiana, where collegiate hires haven鈥檛 dropped as quickly as they have elsewhere.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not recession-proof,鈥� he says, but adds gratefully, 鈥淲e鈥檙e not Detroit down here.鈥�