| By Rochelle Torres |
They are the infamous 18-to-29-year-old group who roll their eyes at the mention of Generation X. Some of the common symptoms associated with Gen X include laziness, job insecurity, alcohol addiction, cynical attitudes, frequent moaning about their inherited national debt, and so on and so
"It's funny. The more degrees you have, the more money you can earn, but there are even less jobs out there for a guy with a Ph.D. In fact, it's scary." — Ron Gerhardstein |
And so it has. Two years later, Gen X is wading through low tide. The media hype left over from Doug Coupland's creation of the term Gen X consists of a lone Fox TV series called, how original, "Gen X." There's not much hype to dampen their dreams anymore, as college graduates continue their journey into the work force. Smooth sailing? Not yet.
U.S. companies continue to downsize. Campus recruiting seems like a thing of the past. And "underemployment," working in a job beneath your skill level, has risen.
Take Barry Lane, a 29-year-old waiter who knows what it's like to be underemployed. Barry graduated from Rutgers University in New Jersey in the spring of 1995 with a BA in geography and the environment. He also received an award for outstanding achievement in his major. "I expected to find a job in environmental planning. I haven't found anything even remotely close to my field." Barry had gone to countless interviews for other jobs as well, ranging from insurance sales to stockbrokerage, all of which were entry-level positions. "I did it for the interview experience, and to also see what else was out there for me."
Along with the interviews came the rejections. Barry was turned down for an auto insurance job and a customer service job. "I was turned down because I had no experience, and because I was a waiter, I've never had experience at a sit-down desk job," said Barry as he chuckled sarcastically.
Low-skill jobs and entry-level positions seem to be the waiting grounds for college graduates hoping to find jobs relating to their majors. After all, they need something to pay the rent. Also, college graduates typically enter the labor force $10,000 in debt from loans taken out to pay soaring tuition bills, and from credit cards that paid for books, meals, and, oh yeah, bar tabs, too.
Shooting out resumes while you wait (no pun intended) is not enough for Ron Gerhardstein, a 30-year-old waiter. Ron received his BS and MA in music education and music performance from the University of Idaho. While getting his masters, Ron taught music in grade school for two years. Ron, who has seen the job market decline in the last ten years, is currently working towards his Ph.D. in music education. "Finding a job is going to be much different then it was before," said Ron pensively, "It's funny. The more degrees you have, the more money you can earn, but there are even less jobs out there for a guy with a Ph.D. In fact, it's scary."
Scary is right. According to a survey taken by The Economist in 1994, college graduates encounter a job market in which 22 percent of employed Americans are either part-time or temporary workers, the highest proportion ever. Employment with temp agencies accounted for 15 percent of the new jobs created in 1993 and 26 percent in 1992. Since 1989, median full-time earnings for workers ages 20 to 24 have fallen, in real terms, by 7 percent.
As for rising underemployment, a 1995 study finds that low pay levels of many new grads only last for a few years. This study by John Tyler and Richard J. Murnane of Harvard University's Graduate School of Education and Frank Levy of Massachusetts Institute of Technology says that young graduates often take low-paying jobs temporarily, while searching for better opportunities. By the time they reach 30, most have managed to enter middle-class ranks.
So what can college students do (while they're still in school) to avoid becoming one of these depressing statistics?