OCTOBER 2008: AROUND THE STATE
THE NEW PLASTICS
STATEWIDE Each
year more students graduate from Oregon colleges. But with the
economy struggling and a glut of graduates, finding a job can
be more difficult than any final exam.
“Students are going to struggle more this year than past
years,” says Oregon Employment Economist Jessica Nelson.
And they’re being hit with a double-whammy. While the
most recent numbers show Oregon hovering around a 6%
unemployment rate, the job market for recent graduates is
becoming more competitive, Nelson says. So where are the
jobs for college grads?
“Accounting,” says Nelson. She chalks up the
reasoning to the demand placed on businesses after the passage
of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, also known as the Public Company
Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002.
But it’s not an accounting job that a majority of
University of Oregon graduates are after. “It’s
government work,” says University of Oregon Career Center
director Deb Chereck. “The Peace Corps and Teach for
America have grown in demand exponentially over the last five
years.”
Chereck thinks a combination of 2008 being an election year
and the fact that more students are coming from a community
service background may have something to do with the surge in
those fields, as well as the increase in jobs from political
campaigns.
Nelson says Oregon’s unemployment rate likely will
remain high for the rest of this year, but job growth is
predicted to return in the first quarter of 2009 and continue
through
2010.
CHRIS MILLER
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