A couple weekends ago when thousands graduated from San Francisco State University we talked with a few of those graduates and they shared some mixed feelings on their job prospects. Unfortunately through these recent numbers, they now help spell out the difficulty that these graduates are now going to be facing in the job market.
Walking the line to receive a college degree can be one of the proudest moments in life. We talked with a recent San Francisco State graduate Kagure Kabue just after being handed her degree. Now, less than two weeks later, getting a job remains priority one.
"It looks like it will be harder than I thought. It's not like, for every 10 applications you send out, you're supposed to get a certain number back and for me right now, it's still zero," said Kabue.
She still has a job on campus, but that will expire at the end of the summer. She says some of her friends are in similar situations doing work that's not in their field. She says they're doing, "anything. Cleaning, working in an office doing you know, copying stuff, janitorial work, anything you can get that will pay the bills."
This season's college graduates are facing tough prospects given job growth numbers. And even the Bay Area's tech firms have been getting hit. In April, Yahoo announced restructuring plans that included 2,000 layoffs and Hewlett Packard announced plans to slash 27,000 jobs. However, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are still three career fields that remain strong: the medical and rehabilitation field, biotechnologies, and engineering. And at least one East Bay medical conglomerate is looking to fill lots of posts.
Sutter Health will be one of several recruiters at the Job Journal HIREvent next week.
"There's a lot of opportunity. There's a lot of baby boomers that will be retiring soon, and there will be a lot of job opportunities in nursing, in rehab, in pharmacy," said Marcos Blanco from Sutter Health Human Resources.
Kabue tells me, even in the face of these tough job numbers, she says she is still confident that she is going to get a job in the film industry. It's what she got her degree in. She says hard work and persistence will eventually pay off.
Upcoming HIREvents/Job Journal free job fair
Tuesday, June 5, 2012, Noon-4 p.m.
Centre Concord
5298 Clayton Road
Concord, CA
1-888-THE-JOBS
www.jobjournal.com
