CHARLOTTE — The college class of 2020 started the spring semester when unemployment was incredibly low, between 3% and 4%. Just a couple of months later, more Americans have filed for unemployment than the entire population of Canada.
Recent college grads are trying to break into the worst economy since the Great Depression, and they’re competing with people who have more experience.
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Studies show people who graduate during a recession usually have a hard time catching up and landing good jobs later.
One article compares the pandemic to war and how, in war, societies have always “sacrificed the young" -- in this case, “indebted students” and “precarious recent graduates” -- among others.
“My analysis of college graduates’ employment rates indicates that they are sensitive to the economic conditions that prevailed at the time that the graduates entered the labor market. Cohorts that graduate during recessions have lower employment rates even after the recession is past,” Jesse Rothstein said in the study.
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“Be flexible. Be willing to look at companies that you hadn’t thought of when you were coming out of college,” Charlotte career coach Andy Thomas tells recent college grads. “Be willing to take a position right now that’s a little less than what you actually were pegging or trying to go after. College students have to work the networking ballgame. You have to be willing to accept a dollar right now in terms of salary that’s less than what you potentially thought you should be getting coming out of college. There are adults in their 30s and 40s and 50s right now that are actually accepting positions $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 less than what they had before. Why? Because we have to feed families. We have to keep our own personal economy in good shape. So be willing to consider things outside the box and definitely network.”
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Alana Stillitano graduated from Virginia Tech top of her class.
"At the beginning of the year, everything seemed great,” she told Channel 9. “I was in a great spot.”
Stillitano told Action 9's Jason Stoogenke she was looking for a job in public relations.
"I had a little spreadsheet. I applied to over 80 different places," she said. "The fact that I was getting interviews, asked to go visit places to see what’s going on, that was a good sign for me. Until it wasn’t."
The pandemic hit and the economy tanked. Stillitano’s job search hit a brick wall.
"Up and down the East Coast and just nothing," she told Action 9.
Stillitano finally found a job offer, and accepted it. It’s temporary at the moment, but has the potential to become permanent -- and it’s in PR.
“At least I have something to do and something in my industry and something I’m passionate about,” she said. “[It’s] definitely comforting to know I’m happy doing what I went to school for.”
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