Graduates warned of record 70 applicants for every job

**DrDoom** · 07-06-2010, 05:34 PM

More "hobos"....

Graduates are facing the most intense scramble in a decade to get a job this summer, as a poll of employers reveals the number of applications for each vacancy has surged to nearly 70 while the number of available positions is predicted to fall by nearly 7%.

The class of 2010 have been told to consider flipping burgers or stacking shelves when they leave university as leading firms in investment banking, law and IT are due to cut graduate jobs this year.

Competition in the jobs market is fiercer now than for the first "post-crunch" generation of students, last year, when there were 48 applications for each vacancy.

The number of applicants chasing each job is so high that nearly 78% of employers are insisting on a 2.1 degree, rendering a 2.2 marginal and effectively ruling out any graduates with a third, according to the survey published tomorrow.

Graduates warned of record 70 applicants for every job | Education | The Guardian

**PhillyKev** · 07-06-2010, 05:36 PM

To clarify, this is in the UK.

What the heck does this mean?: 78% of employers are insisting on a 2.1 degree, rendering a 2.2 marginal and effectively ruling out any graduates with a third,

**DrDoom** · 07-06-2010, 05:39 PM

Technically yes but we're not necessarly an exception to the trend....talk to some College graduates..soon to be "hobos"

**BeckyJ** · 07-06-2010, 06:00 PM

Oh, my god. The sheer horror of working a job you don't like, that isn't up to your skill level, while you look for work that is. I really don't know how these kids are going to handle it.

Some will mooch off their parents and some will just find work no matter what it is and keep plugging away. The latter group will be successful later in life. The former will spend a lot of time whinging.

**OldCityTans** · 07-06-2010, 06:17 PM

College has a pretty crap ROI. Unless you're seriously academic, the money is better spent on a business enterprise.

**DrDoom** · 07-06-2010, 09:48 PM

Originally Posted by OldCityTans

College has a pretty crap ROI. Unless you're seriously academic, the money is better spent on a business enterprise.

Sure if you can get a small business loan....JPMorgan prefers to mint CDO's to bet against countries and US states, swap their toxic crap for free Fed Reserve funny money and then park it at Treasury for a risk free 4% return.

So much for the bailout freeing up money to promote free enterprise.....

Socialism for the rich ..capitalism for everybody else...

**jillys** · 07-06-2010, 09:59 PM

Originally Posted by BeckyJ

Oh, my god. The sheer horror of working a job you don't like, that isn't up to your skill level, while you look for work that is. I really don't know how these kids are going to handle it.

Some will mooch off their parents and some will just find work no matter what it is and keep plugging away. The latter group will be successful later in life. The former will spend a lot of time whinging.

Seriously! I made less than I would have working at Home Depot for the first few years after I got my graduate degree. I lived on my own, covered my expenses and even managed to put a few hundred dollars away each pay period. I saw it as paying my dues and I got by just fine. The only difference is I got a job in my field relatively easily. I imagine not being able to do that is frustrating, but most college graduates should be able to find their way...

**CrazyIvan** · 07-07-2010, 08:24 AM

As a member of this "millennial" generation that is struggling to find jobs, hearing people say "Just take whatever you can get!" is frustrating and annoying. It's not like we don't want to work: it's that there are hardly any jobs at all, and for the majority of them, we're competing against kids who are in high school or still in college for part time or summer work. Those kids- the current HS/College crowd- can justifiably be paid less than recent college grads simply because they don't have that pesky BA or BS after their name.

Yes, this can turn into a larger debate of whether or not so many people need to go to college; while I think that is a fruitful discussion (and one that I, frankly, lean towards "too many people go that don't need to go" category), it's not really helpful to think in terms of that. We- my generation- have been put in the unenviable position that many decent-paying jobs require college degrees. The BA/BS has become the high school diploma, at least in the Northeastern US.

Yes, this comes from the NY Times, so I'm sure some will decry it as liberal propaganda, but I don't have time to go verify it thru other sources right now:

"the so-called millennials, 18 to 29 — whose unemployment rate of nearly 14 percent approaches the levels of that group in the Great Depression."

My group of friends didn't go to college just to piss away money and take out student loans: they went to be teachers, engineers, pre-med, poli-sci majors that are now in law school. Many of them are now working minimum wage-jobs just so they don't default on their student loan payments, and as a result they have had to move back in with their parents. Don't you think that's humiliating for them? Do you honestly think these people want to be 25 and living with their parents, while their hard-earned education (during which, many worked part-time jobs) goes to waste?

Regardless of where you stand on the college-vs-trade school issue, please don't degrade my entire generation by acting like we're not busting our a**es trying to find some work, any work, so that we are useful and can start some sort of lives for ourselves. We didn't make the economic conditions that we're currently stuck in, but we're feeling the brunt of them.

The whole Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/bu...n.html?_r=1&hp

Sorry for the rant, but I had to put my two cents in. Back to work now

**macdaire** · 07-07-2010, 08:37 AM

A 3rd/2nd or a 1st are the Eglish equivalant of GPA in the college system.

A 1st is the top "rank".

**Garret** · 07-07-2010, 08:59 AM

Originally Posted by PhillyKev

To clarify, this is in the UK.

What the heck does this mean?: 78% of employers are insisting on a 2.1 degree, rendering a 2.2 marginal and effectively ruling out any graduates with a third,

Rough approximation:

1h = A
2.1 = B+
2.2 = B-
3 = C

In good times, a 1 or 2.1 would have employers fighting over you, but it sounds like now you need a 2.1 to get your foot in the door anywhere.

**Outlaw Star** · 07-07-2010, 09:26 AM

Originally Posted by CrazyIvan

As a member of this "millennial" generation that is struggling to find jobs, hearing people say "Just take whatever you can get!" is frustrating and annoying. It's not like we don't want to work: it's that there are hardly any jobs at all, and for the majority of them, we're competing against kids who are in high school or still in college for part time or summer work. Those kids- the current HS/College crowd- can justifiably be paid less than recent college grads simply because they don't have that pesky BA or BS after their name.

My group of friends didn't go to college just to piss away money and take out student loans: they went to be teachers, engineers, pre-med, poli-sci majors that are now in law school. Many of them are now working minimum wage-jobs just so they don't default on their student loan payments, and as a result they have had to move back in with their parents. Don't you think that's humiliating for them? Do you honestly think these people want to be 25 and living with their parents, while their hard-earned education (during which, many worked part-time jobs) goes to waste?

Regardless of where you stand on the college-vs-trade school issue, please don't degrade my entire generation by acting like we're not busting our a**es trying to find some work, any work, so that we are useful and can start some sort of lives for ourselves. We didn't make the economic conditions that we're currently stuck in, but we're feeling the brunt of them.

THIS. Thank you. Some of you need to get off your high horse and get a clue that not all millenials who are unemployed and struggling to find their way are in that position because they're lazy or too good for what's available.

The problem is that too often there's NOTHING available. I was essentially unemployed for eight months after earning my graduate degree. I applied to hundreds of places and went on countless interviews. Jobs for my experience level were near impossible to come by, and by then I was overqualified for entry level and retail jobs, so what, pray tell, was I supposed to do?

I kept doing some freelancing and eventually landed a good temp job that I flipped into a full time position. But this idea that we're not willing to work, or work at something less than perfect, is ignorant. There's just not much you can do when you can't even get your foot in any door.

**PhillyKev** · 07-07-2010, 11:09 AM

Originally Posted by Outlaw Star

There's just not much you can do when you can't even get your foot in any door.

Yet somehow, millions of illegal immigrants are able to get jobs. How many jobs picking crops or cleaning houses did you apply for?

**Hospitalitygirl** · 07-07-2010, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by BeckyJ

Oh, my god. The sheer horror of working a job you don't like, that isn't up to your skill level, while you look for work that is. I really don't know how these kids are going to handle it.

Some will mooch off their parents and some will just find work no matter what it is and keep plugging away. The latter group will be successful later in life. The former will spend a lot of time whinging.

Why do I feel like some may have missed this very salient point?

**OB2SP** · 07-07-2010, 11:24 AM

Originally Posted by PhillyKev

Yet somehow, millions of illegal immigrants are able to get jobs. How many jobs picking crops or cleaning houses did you apply for?

I don't want to hear that there are NO jobs out there. I'm 28, so I kind of fall into this category, although I've never heard of the term "millenials." The job I currently hold came because, after losing my last job, I was willing to temp at an office filing boxes. That gave me exposure to different departments, I ended up getting assignments here and there, now I'm employed full-time, with a satisfying paycheck.

Ever since I was 12, I held some sort of job. My parents provided enough for me to live when I was a kid. They paid for little league, but I got the glove and cleats that they were willing to pay for. If I wanted something nicer, I had to go earn it. That lesson proved beneficial in adulthood. I lost my first and second job out of college. But in between jobs, I always found something to do to earn some scratch. Work for a friend's landscaping or construction business, local pizza shop, waiter. Anything. Even prior to losing those two full-time jobs, if someone presented me with an opportunity to make a hundred bucks on a Saturday, I was there.

**PhillyKev** · 07-07-2010, 11:40 AM

Yep, same here. Had a paper route at 12, washed dishes at a restaurant at 13, worked at a beverage warehouse sorting bottles at 15, after that did telephone surveys, customer service for a cell phone company, stuffed envelopes on an assembly line, roofing, sheet rocking, landscaping, then temp data entry jobs, leading to a job at a title insurance company, worked there 5 years and became the office manager, went to tech school for computers at night and then finally found a career with good pay.

Had times I was out of work between jobs and I would go to construction sites and offer to do manual labor for a day for $40 cash. A few guys would pony up and I'd be their gopher or second set of hands and work my ass off. Or, when the Dead was touring, I'd follow them and sell grilled cheese in the parking lots making enough for gas, tickets food and a campground.

At one point lived in my car for 4 months straight paying $8 or so a night to stay in state park campgrounds.

Eventually, it paid off. I was debt free and making 6 figures by 30, with no college education.

**CrazyIvan** · 07-07-2010, 11:58 AM

PhillyKev @ OB2SP- you're kind of making the point I was trying to make. People have to work their a**es off, and many do. They take whatever they can get (anecdotal case-in-point: a talented, passionate teacher friend of mine was just laid off...he is now selling shoes. He's able to play it off with humor, but it's work and he needed a job.). I'm almost 28- I've had a job since I was 15. I worked all the way through college (I had 2 jobs one semester) and I've done it all: retail, flower delivery, auto parts, call center work.

My problem is when I see comments along the lines of "oh, boo hoohoo" or "mooching off their parents" like it's somehow a choice. Yes, there will be people who aren't trying...but that can be said about many jobless now. And yes, people can "go pick produce" or "go clean houses" but *realistically* once you have a college degree, those types of jobs won't touch you with a 10 foot poll. When my husband graduated, he couldn't find work for 8 months. EIGHT! His applications to retail establishments were met with: you have too much experience. The one place that did call him for an interview promptly pulled its offer off the table when the company froze hiring. He took a temp gig at an automobile maker's financial center, and got to spend his days being called a "domestic terrorist" by people who bought cars, then were on the verge of repo because they too lost their jobs and couldn't pay for them. That was fantastic for him, and us, let me tell you...

My only point to this discussion is that older people can sit back and say "look at this coddled, over-privileged generation and their mooching" and "back in my day, we took whatever we could get" when they aren't understanding that, for may of us, the *reality* is that the jobs we went to college to get are being more hotly applied for than ever (and with no "experience", we're last in line for them) and we're over-qualified for the jobs so-called "beneath" us and we can't even get interviews for a minimum-wage retail gig.

It's too easy to make generalizations, and none of it changes the fact that the economy is still in the sh*tter, and for those of us trying to get careers started (and with it lives, families, houses...you know, the things that help to continue driving the economy), it's presenting a monumental hurdle to overcome.

**Garret** · 07-07-2010, 12:12 PM

It is pretty bad out there right now. We were recently hiring people and I had numerous "Holy Sh!t" moments looking at some of the resumes of pretty highly qualified people who had been out of work for months or years.

Most of us did crappy jobs before we got to sit in air-conditioned offices posting on PS all day. Anyone looking for a job these days has an uphill battle that has not been seen in years. I have certainly never seen anything like it.

**OldCityTans** · 07-07-2010, 12:20 PM

Originally Posted by DrDoom

Sure if you can get a small business loan....:

That sounds awfully pessimistic of you. A wise man once said...
"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails."

Maybe you should adjust your sails, sir.

**Hospitalitygirl** · 07-07-2010, 12:24 PM

Sam's Club will offer small-business loans - Business - U.S. business - msnbc.com

Sam's Club. Now bringing you small business loans.

**UncleCranky** · 07-07-2010, 12:26 PM

I would think that there is a perception (real or not) that the millennials are a pampered generation (caused by their parents) and are ill equipped to do what it takes to succeed in such difficult times.

Is it true? Though I saw this article yesterday and had to laugh:
Self-esteem: Teens feel great about themselves — but are they headed for a fall? - chicagotribune.com

-UC