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Health & Fitness

Dealing With Unemployment Post-Graduation

Post-graduate anxieties and unemployment.

Hi, my name is Rachel and I'm a member of the Unemployed College Graduates of America Club.

According to tradition, college graduates are supposed to find jobs in their chosen field, pay their own rent, and begin their life as an independent adult. These days college graduates are flocking home to live rent-free with Mom and Dad instead. To be sure, the post-grad path that generations before us have taken is not as accessible to recent grads; the poor economy and high levels of unemployment have made life after graduation a particularly frightening and anxious place to be.

Like so many other recent college graduates, I spend most days searching the job listings on Craigslist, applying for jobs, and working an unpaid internship. In March, an article in the New York Times noted:

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“Over the past year, unemployment among college graduates under age 25 has averaged 9.5 percent. Among all workers under 25, unemployment in February was 17.7 percent. Many young people will never recoup the work experience and income growth they have been denied by today’s weak economy.” 

Four-plus years of college and a degree do not guarantee you'll be able to find a job, and sadly, landing a good job after graduation seems to be an exception rather than the norm. Most of my friends in their early/mid-20s are either unemployed or have found part-time jobs working alongside high school students slinging coffee and waiting tables.

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Some people are working for their parents, essentially in exchange for room and board, and still others work two or three part-time jobs or babysit to bring in a little cash. One girl I talked to — a 2010 graduate of UCLA — said she applied to 100 positions on the UCLA job board before the computer software basically cut her off. She was unemployed until she landed a secretarial position a few months ago. There is nothing wrong with working these kinds of jobs; I'm simply pointing out that there is little difference in the types of jobs held by my college degree-earning friends and those whose formal education ended after high school. 

And I know few recent college graduates who haven't moved back home.

Every time I walk around downtown Santa Cruz, I seem to run into more and more of my high school classmates who have returned home after failing to find jobs elsewhere. And while Santa Cruz is great, let's be honest: It's not a big city of opportunities like San Francisco, New York or Los Angeles. Many of us have taken on internships to gain experience, and while I think internships are great, I feel like the rampant utilization of unpaid interns is becoming a bit abusive — many companies seem to be taking advantage of the free labor that college graduates are willing to provide, hoping that one day they'll be able to move up the ranks.

There’s a growing sense of anxiety among many of us that we won’t find work in the fields we’ve been trained in, that we won’t be able to pay our student loans back in a timely manner, and that we’ll be living with our parents forever. These anxieties have always been part of graduating, but America’s current economic crisis seems to have exacerbated the fears of recent graduates and those who are planning to enter the job market in the next few years. Clearly we were lucky to be able to attend college, but it's becoming apparent that low employment rates and the current economic problems are having profound emotional and psychological effects on recent college graduates.  

So, what can unemployed college graduates do, in the meantime, and how can we cope with the stresses of this economy? I don't have the answer to that, but I'd love to hear some suggestions. This is a major battle, not just for college students, but for all Americans who are struggling to find employment. I'm trying to believe that we're on the other side of the hill now, and things are slowly starting to improve, but that remains to be seen. 

So, now that the Casey Anthony trial is over, perhaps we can get back to talking about the important stuff, like jobs for Americans! Unfortunately the cynical part of me is just waiting for another scandal to distract the public from these issues.

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