Wednesday, May 16, 2012

A Tough Market for Grads

The employment picture has been tough for a lot of people lately, but none moreso than recent college grads. Researchers at Rutgers recently took a look at how people have been doing in their introduction to the job market, and the results are highly sobering. Less than half of those people who have graduated from college since 2009 were able to find a job within a year of leaving school. That number has dropped a lot in recent years: For those who graduated between 2006 and 2008, 73 percent had a job in the first year.

Moreover, those who do land jobs aren't exactly satisfied with them. Of those who did find work, 42 percent described them as "just a job to get you by." Another 36 percent call them "a stepping stone to a career," and just 22 percent said their first job was the start of a career.

And, not surprisingly, they're not making a lot of money. Those who have graduated since 2009 are making an average salary of $27,000. That's down from the classes of 2006 and 2007, who averaged around $30,000 for their starting annual salary.

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