Unemployment big problem for Slippery Rock University grads

With the unemployment rate of persons graduating with a bachelor's degree hovering close to five percent, students who graduate are now faced with a harsh reality when they try to enter the workforce after their college years.

Among students at Slippery Rock University, whose recent unemployment rates are slightly higher than the national average, those who do career planning while completing their undergraduate degree typically are better prepared to face a weak job market upon graduation.

And the Career Services department is trying their best to prepare students with what to expect through both traditional and new features in career building, but must first overcome how to address large numbers of students with a small staff.

"We're trying to find more venues to address the masses," John Rindy, the director of the university's Career Services department said. "Whether it's FYRST seminars, clubs, organizations, job fairs – we're trying to get the word out."    

While means such as cover letter and resume building remain a focal point of instruction, the department is exploring digital means as a way to reach students.

"We're offering virtual tools students can use on their own for career service building," Rindy said.

One key tool being developed is an online self-interviewing program that will allow students to practice professional interviews from their personal computers, and have them analyzed by the department and professors. The program is already running at California University of Pa. and is expected to be ready for SRU students soon.

"The hope is for a higher percentage of students to leave SRU with interview experience," Rindy said.

While the department is working hard in innovations, as well as stressing extensive career planning for students starting freshman year, Rindy wasn't ready to completely fall into the job market doom and gloom talk.

"Look through the past months on the College Central Network," Rindy said. "There are some 400 job postings a month. And they're by and large bachelor's degree jobs."

Rindy also emphasized the difference in employment rates depending on the different fields of study. For example, 2011 graduates from the College of Business, Information and Social Sciences had a 49 percent employment rate in their field of choice, while graduates from the College of Humanities, Fine and Performing Arts had only a 15 percent rate in their field of choice.

But the overwhelming most successful group of SRU students entering the job market were those leaving a graduate program, with 72 percent of 2011 grads finding a job in their field of choice.

And more students are entering graduate school compared to years past as a way to combat the poor job market.

Roughly 23 percent of the most recent group of graduates from Slippery Rock University opted to continue their education, eight points higher than in 2007, prior to the economic recession.

The theory amongst students is graduate school will not only make them more qualified, but will also simply prolong their entrance into a weak market. This trend is seen around the nation.

According to Kaplan Test Prep's 2011 Survey of Business School Admissions Officers, 52 percent of respondents saw an increase in applications in 2010-11, while only half that number saw a decrease.

But Career Services advises against going to grad school simply to prolong entering the job market, rather only advising an advanced degree if there is an academic or occupational reason to get one.