This blog post was written by Jiesi Zhao, Sarah T. Hermann Intern Scholar
By now you’ve probably heard that
having a college degree no longer guarantees job safety or that you’ll even have
a job upon graduation. In fact, unemployment among workers with a college
degree is at a record high since the Great
Depression and the unemployment rate among young people was at 18.6% in June, and show no
signs of coming down. These statistics clearly indicate the bleak reality faced
by college graduates all over the country. Among my colleagues at UC Berkeley,
there is a general sentiment that having a degree from Cal use to mean something, but now they are just as lost and unsure of
what their futures hold as anyone without a bachelor’s degree.
Recent grads send out hundreds of
applications every week and are lucky if they hear back from one or two of
them. And as the weeks go by with still no job in sight, many are losing
confidence and resorting to taking part-time work or moving back in with their
parents.
However, even in this dejected
state, there are steps you can take to better your situation:
The first is to
recognize that any hands-on government action claimed to be able to create more
jobs by increasing spending has never worked and will not work this time
either. Since the passage of Obama’s supposed stimulus bill, the number of
people no longer in the labor force has grown by 3.2
million.
Moreover, the average American spends about 28.5 weeks unemployed and looking
for a job, the longest since 1948. So, sitting
around and waiting for the Obama administration to fix things is clearly not
the answer.
The next step is
to not lose faith in the skills you have obtained from earning your college
degree and expand your job hunt methods. Use more than one job listing website,
don’t just bank on one or two applications to work out, and find out if your
alma mater offers any alumni career fairs (many of them do). With the right
skills and a good marketing strategy, it will only be a matter of time before
you find a job that is a good fit for you, even if it takes a little longer
than you had anticipated. Moreover, it’s okay to take a part-time job that you
did when you were sixteen for the time being as long as you don’t give up the
search for something more suitable. You may have to swallow your pride a bit,
but you’ve got to start somewhere.
Lastly, do
something industrial or recreational with the extra time you have. You don’t
have to be the next creator of Facebook in order to make a difference. Join a
local conservative organization and offer to get more involved in planning the
next group event or network with new friends by joining a tennis club.
With the recent
rise of Americans, and especially young Americans, who believe in liberty and
freedom, the future is already starting to look brighter and our economy is
poised to recover despite Obama’s socialist strategies.
This blog post was written by Jiesi Zhao, Sarah T. Hermann Intern Scholar
