“Unemployment rate reaches highest level in over 14 years.”

“Payroll employment declined for the 10th month in a row, dropping by another 240,000 in October alone.”

“Unemployment among college graduates increased sharply in October, with 1.4 million college-educated Americans now unemployed, up 280,000 from a month ago.”

These statistics, provided by The Economic Policy Institute (a non-profit, non-partisan think tank) and based on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ October report, make the blood of college seniors and recent graduates run cold. You can’t pick up a paper or watch the news without hearing disconcerting facts about the perilous state of the United States (and world) economies. But have the effects of the current economic recession reached the recent grads of the Loveliest Village on the Plains?

Yes and no appears to be the foggy, yet prevailing, answer. Entry-level job availability seems to vary greatly from major to major.

Danny Clark graduated from Auburn’s communication department in May with a degree in radio, television and film. He’s been actively searching for full time employment since April.

“My experience in this job search, particularly in the media industry is that there aren’t that many full time jobs available,” Clark said. “And if there are, they are jobs for people with 5 to 10 years experience. Any entry-level jobs have been part time, freelance, or temporary.”

However, Clark is grateful for the successes that he’s had thus far, and remains patient for the successes that lie ahead.

“My job search has been pretty good, not great, but I can’t complain,” Clark added. “I found a part time, freelance job editing highlights for NBAtv at Turner Studios in Atlanta. I’ve been doing that for about a month now and have still been working in Auburn during the week.

Auburn alumnus Ashley Pastor received her undergraduate degree in 2006 and graduated again in August with her masters in technical professional communication.

“I started my job search in March and probably applied for well over 50 jobs between, online craigslist and the paper,” said Pastor.

After almost a seven-month search, Pastor interviewed with Auburn University, and quickly accepted their job offer.
“I’m the communications editor for the college of liberal arts,” Pastor said. “I do a lot more press releases and photography and articles than I do editing, which is fine. It fits what I was hoping for in a job.”

And while seven months of job searching might seem like a long time to crash on couches or with parents, that number is on target with accepted job search estimates. Career Counselor Katie Mantooth has been helping students and graduates at Auburn University’s Career Development Services (CDS) since April of 2001. 

“The average job search takes six months,” Mantooth said. 

CDS offers help for students in all stages of their professional careers - from interest inventories and major selection, all the way to resume building and mock interviews. 

“Specifically with the job search, we help do resume development, cover letters, and personal statements for people who might be looking into graduate school, which is often what happens when the economy is down,” Mantooth said. “They go straight on to get more education because they either can’t get a job or they recognize that to get these jobs ‘I’ve got to have more education.’ It’s interesting how that flux happens as well,” Mantooth said.

And while she hasn’t seen a notable spike in upset seniors or recent grads this fall, Mantooth said that her office is beginning to hear of ripple effects from the recession.

“We had our staff this morning, and we have a regional conference of employers, recruiters and career counselors in December, and our director has been saying that there have been several companies that have had to back out,” Mantooth said. “They can’t come so they’re cancelling, as well as some of the colleges that can’‘t come. So it’s happening.”

But it’s not all gloom and doom. Some majors seem entirely unaffected by the changing employment landscape.
“Our engineering job fair had whatever the max was that they can have, I think 112, 111, had a waiting list,” Mantooth said. “So our engineering students are still doing alright. And that’s a significant portion of our graduates.”

CDS’s Web site,

, offers an overflowing cornucopia of web tools and job search engines that can help students and alumni with their job searches. And all of their tools and in-offices services are available to alumni or all ages, free of charge.

Mantooth noted, “A lot of universities make their alumni pay, but we don’t charge anything for our alumni. And I have seen more older alumni this fall. The people who are displaced by a job after being out there for 10 or 15 years or realizing that ‘this is not fulfilling. I’ve got to figure out what I should be doing.’ ”

And there is always a portion of Auburn alumni that are guaranteed jobs upon graduation: The AUROTC alumni. Auburn alumnus Ragan Cole received his degree in criminology in May.

“Since I was in the Air Force [ROTC] they pretty much just told me what it was going to be,” Cole said. “I got to request a few careers and they gave me careers that in no way suited my major,” he added sarcastically.

Since June, Cole has been stationed in Florida and is currently in Biloxi, Miss., for special training.

“I’m doing the budget. Budget analyst I guess would be the title, at Hurlburt,” Cole said. “Pretty much it’s just like approving funds to buy things to make sure that the base runs and the missions can be accomplished.”

Cole says that he enjoys the security that his government job provides, but worries that about the economic logic behind rapid government job expansion in a time of private job recession.

“Last month when, I don’t know the number exactly but, thousands of Americans lost their jobs, the federal government added 28,000 jobs.”

But for those students who have not taken the government job route, career counselor Mantooth offered a few pieces of solid, general advice, “I think that people need to treat the job search like a job,” she advised. “Carve out a time to do it every day. And things like Monster and Career Builder and all those great sites that are out there, use them, but use them . . . like the little part of the pie chart. The big piece of the pie is networking, making phone calls, sending out resumes and looking at company Web sites.”

Mantooth added that the best way to get a job is networking.

“Anytime you can make yourself a human being and not just a paper, that’s a good idea,” she said.

Mantooth added that Auburn’s Career Expo is a great way to get started in your career search.

“There’s no other time in life when somebody’s going to come to you seeking you out,” she said. “I don’t know why more students don’t utilize that. I think sometimes people think ‘Oh, I’m a liberal arts major. They’re not gonna hire me,’ but that’s not true.”

Whether you’re searching for a job or planning the search soon after the upcoming graduation, Auburn does offer tools that will at least get you started in your search. It’s up to you to utilize them.