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ewest crop of college graduates can expect plenty of job offers
by Casey Selix
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
April 25, 2001
Macalester College graduating
senior Ryan Abbe is one of the
fortunate ones.
In July, Abbe starts a $45,000-a
-year job as an investment banking
analyst for U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray
in Minneapolis. He accepted Piper
Jaffray's offer complete with a
signing bonus in December.
Although Piper Jaffray has since
laid off 70 employees during a bearish
stock market, Abbe still has his job,
and he takes a pragmatic view of his
future in the company's financial
institutions group.
"In this kind of economy,
businesses still need people to get a
lot of work done for relatively little
money," said Abbe, 22, who majored
in economics and earned a 3.6 grade
point average. "I still feel OK, but you
never know, and that's part of the
game."
Though layoffs are mounting
nationwide and statewide, hiring of
the latest crop of college graduates is
still on the rise, according to fall and
spring surveys by the National
Association of Colleges and
Employers.
The spring survey just completed
showed employers expect to hire 19
percent more college grads than they
did a year ago. Still, that figure is
down from the 24 percent increase
that employers anticipated last fall.
"Definitely, things have slowed
down," said Camille Luckenbaugh,
employment information manager for
the Bethlehem, Pa.-based association.
"But when you look at the big picture,
employers are still in a growth cycle.
Unemployment is low. They're telling
us they plan to hire nearly 20 percent
more grads. Is that going to change
in six months? I don't know, but for
what we're seeing right now, things
are not that bad."
Job growth in Minnesota slid to
Pittsburgh man guilty of killing 2 Soro students
A jury took about three hours to convict a Pitts
burgh man of two counts of first-degree murder af
ter he killed two college students after he lured them
with the promise of drugs.
William Paxton, 22, was found guilty of murder in
connection with the deaths of Jeremy Lindsey, 20,
and Joseph Clayton, 21. Clayton was in the process
of transferring from Indiana University of Pennsyl
vania to Edinboro University, where Lindsey was al
ready a student.
Prosecutors said Craig A. Hairston, 23, was
Paxton's accomplice and will try him on first-degree
murder charges in October.
Paxton and Hairston lured the two college students
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percent in March. the slowest
rate since the recession of 1990--
91, according to state data. The
state unemployment rate is up to
3.4 percent; the national rate is
4.3 percent. State initial
unemployment insurance claims
shot up 44 percent from a year
ago.
Even so, the state estimates
36,000 new jobs will be created
in Minnesota this year, said Jay
Mousa, director of research and
statistics for the Minnesota
Department of Economic
Security.
"The job market as a whole is
weaker than it has been in
previous years, - Mousa said. "It
is to some extent a job seeker's
market but not to the extent it
used to be in the past. - In the
Twin Cities, the biggest demand
among jobs requiring college degrees
is for registered nurses, accountants
and auditors, and managers, according
to a state job vacancy report in fourth
quarter of 2000, the latest data
available. Despite the layoffs in dot
coms, Mousa said. computer software
engineers, systems analysts and
programmers made a list of the top 10
vacancies for jobs requiring college
degrees.
A liberal arts major is not the kiss
of death, however. Employers ranked
liberal arts No. 5 among the top five
majors they sought in college
graduates, according to a fall 2000
survey by the Collegiate Employment
Research Institute at Michigan State
University. The others, in order:
engineering, computer science,
business and the sciences.
But last year's intense bidding wars
for graduates in such fields as
computer science, engineering and
business appear to be cooling off.
Multiple job offers and signing
bonuses aren't as prevalent.
"The frantic pace at which some of
these organizations tried to find
students is cooling off," said Denise
TMS Campus
April 25, 2001
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from nearby Erie on Jan. 7, 2000, with the promise
of selling them three pounds of marijuana for $7,200.
Paxton met the two students at a Pittsburgh bar
and later exited to their car. The group then drove to
an alley, where Hairston allegedly waited with a can
of gasoline.
While the two students sat in the front seat, Paxton
shot each in the back of the head. Paxton and Hairston
then allegedly drove the car to a secluded street,
where they set the bodies and car on fire. Police be
lieve that Paxton took about $l,OOO from Lindsey's
pocket and later used the money to buy a diamond
ring.
Paxton told police that Lindsey was to he his room
mate at Edinboro.
Paxton faces at least two consecutive life terms at
his July 9 sentencing .
tuition isn't one of them.
Average yearly salary offers for college graduates:
Agriculture and natural resources majors .$30,109
Business majors .$40,036
Communications majors • $27,537
Computer sciences majors • $48,987
Education majors • $27,278
Engineering majors • $48,682
Health sciences majors • $38,101
Humanities & social sciences majors • $29,516
Sciences majors • $34,562
Source: Winter 2001 Salary Survey, National Association of Colleges
and Employers (News Service edited version)
Ward, director of Macalester's Career
Development Center. "They're still
looking for good hires, but the student
has to be more than a warm body. For
a while, it felt like the`warm body
syndrome' dominated hiring
decisions, she said.
Because fall is the heaviest on
campus recruiting and hiring period
for employers, the fallout from recent
layoffs and the declining stock
market may not be felt on campuses
until September or so, said Phil
Gardner, director of the Collegiate
Employment Research Institute in
Michigan.
"So far, only selected sectors have
been hit very hard and the shift in
labor is still going on, - Gardner said.
"Even those large layoffs in the paper
that seem so ominous are not all
taking place in one year.
"Employers are still hiring
underneath those layoffs," he said.
"There's a lot of skill replacement
occurring" i.e., hiring of young
people such as Abbe, who has up-to
date computer and other skills and
will work for entry-level pay.
Piper Jaffray said hiring has slowed
since December.
"We considercollege recruiting to
be very important," said
spokeswoman Wendy Bujalski.
"We've always had a college
recruiting presence and we're always
on the lookout for top talent. But
hiring has slowed across the hoard
and it has affected recruiting."
Gardner said he`s more worried
about next year's job prospects for
co'lge graduates. "If the suit k
Market continues to perform poorly,
Mon the people positioned to retire
retire
The first \vave of bah) hoomers hits
age 55 this year and could begin to
take early retirement. II not,
companies engaged in succession
planning may hold off hiring, he said.
This spring, college counselors are
advising students to expect longer job
searches and not to wait until they
graduate to begin. So far, they haven't
seen a lot of recruiters canceling
interviews or their booths at job fairs.
- The students who got jobs last fall
are feeling very good," said Ward of
Macalester College. "Students who
are looking at the business sectors
experiencing some slowdowns will
have to work a little harder. This is
No plastic for you
BONNIE WELLER/PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
not going to be the
cakewalk they thought it
would he."
When Toni Peluso
entered the University
of St. Thomas four years
ago, the economy was
booming. The public
relations major wants to
find a job in marketing
or sales, hut so far is
discovering that her
targeted employers want
people with three to live
years of experience.
"A lot of
companies seem to be
cutting back on entry
level jobs," said Peluso,
who hopes to work in
the Twin Cities area or
Chicago. "It's hard to
get a loot in the door, and the hardest
part is getting an interview. Once I get
an interview, I do line.-
Peluso, who minored in political
science, went so far as to crash a job
fair held last fall at DePaul University
in Chicago, where a friend attends, to
talk to potential employers.
"I feel confident I'll find
something," said Peluso, who is from
Grand Rapids, Minn. just want my
first lob to be a good experience. I
don't want to take just anything."
Even those hot computer science
majors are affected by the economic
slow clown, said Loren Gragert of
ater, who is graduating from St.
homas with a double major in
computer science and biochemistry
and a 3.74 grade point average.
‘VLIS scheduled for an interview
at Rest Buy. hut they canceled out of
now here and told me they weren't
hiring entry-level people," Gragert
said recently while waiting for an
interview with a recruiter from Am.
;, local information systems
consulting firm.
Su far. Gragert has received one job
offer in the high s4o,ooo's. No bonus
was offered. He is weighing whether
to take a job or go on to graduate
school
"I haven't had any luck with the big
science companies such as 3M,
Medtronic and Honeywell they're
hiring Ph.Ds," said Gragert, who is
interested in research, artificial
intelligence and data mining.
Less competition for college
graduates is a blessing for some
employers.
"We're finding the market is really
competitive, though we have not had
extreme challenges recruiting our
college graduates, - said Tracy
Johnson, human resource manager for
Minneapolis-based Target Corp.
"Even though the market has slowed
a little hit, from the students'
perspective they don't know any
different and they're still getting two,
three, five or seven offers. There's still
an opportunity for them to he
choosier."
Hiring happens Target Corp., which
also includes retailers Marshall
Field's, Dayton's and Mervyn's,
expects to hire 1,800 college graduates
nationwide this year for stores and the
corporate headquarters here, Johnson
said.
Particularly challenging is finding
recruits for the East Coast expansion
of Target stores, she said. "We're
breaking into a new market," where
Target's reputation is not as well
known as it is in the Midwest.
Wells Fargo has 400 to 500
openings across the state
tellers to lawyers," said Philomena
Morrissey Satre, community outreach
coordinator for Wells Fargo. "The
challenging part about our work force
is we have so many different
businesses," including investments,
banking and the mortgage side, she
said.
The St. Paul Cos. will hire 100
college graduates this year, which is
up from last year, said spokeswoman
Arline Datu.
Students protest
Penn State's reaction
to death threats
during rally for unity
Rachel White
solicits
signatures at
the student
center at the
University of
Delaware in
Newark,
Delaware
In the wake of death threats made
against an African-American student
leader at Penn State, the student body
at scheduled a rally to promote unity.
The rally took place. The unity did
not.
White is
opposed to
the market
ing of credit
cards to
students on
campus
Speeches from university President
Graham Spanier and Kenneth Clarke,
director of ethics and religious affairs,
were drowned out by students de
manding an immediate meeting with
Spainier at the Tuesday rally. Mem
bers of The Black Caucus student
group then urged students to refuse to
participate in the administration-en
dorsed march.
The rally was in response to several
death threats made against Penn State
students, athletes and athletes' parents
since October, In the most recent loci
dent, reporter for the Penn StatestV
dent newspaper received a letter st*
ing that a black student leader was be=
ing stalked, and that a young black man
had been killed and left in a local
wooded area, according to a release
from the university's office of student
affairs.
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The repotur immediately contacted
rxtlice, who have given the threatened
student around-therclock police pro.
teetion am! condUcted a search of tif
wooded area where no evidence Ota
body was found.
The Black Caucus is dissatisfied
with the university's reaction the
death threats and claims the university
is not taking the threats seriously. The
criminal investigation is being inves
tigated by federal agencies ranging
from 1.1.5. Postal Inspectors to the FBI.
Following the rally, members ofThe
Black Caucus met with Spinier,
though talks broke off 'ruesday night
about 100 p.m. In a statement issued
Wednesday, Spainier said he agreed
with many of the points The Mack
Caucus presented.
`The students presented a series of
demands. We agree with many of
them," Spinier said. "Some in Ware
already planned for'implementation.
Some are worthy trim thatr#
Cher discussion .7,0; i? '4!
FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2001
by Matthew McGuire
TMS Campus
April 25, 2001