As fall graduation approaches for many seniors across the country, the job application process will soon, if not already, begin.
Even with improvements in the economy and unemployment rate at 5.1 percent, there were no silver linings in a recent report about the status of jobs for the month of September.
According to the September Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs report, the economy only added 142,000 jobs, which was below analyst’s projection of 201,000.
September’s report generated the worst results this year; the unemployment rate remained 5.1 percent with hours and wages down for the month.
Carl Tannenbaum, a chief economist at Northern Trust in Chicago, told generation oppotunity that the report does not look good.
“There’s nothing good in this morning’s report,” Tannenbaum said. “the unemployment rate would have risen if the labor force participation hadn’t fallen.”
According to generation opportunity, these stats should not come as a surprise given the vast amount of government regulations slowing down the economy.
Government regulations seem to be the biggest obstacle for college graduates when they are in the process for jobs.
Federal regulations took nearly $2 trillion away from the economy in 2014 by contributing to rising prices and lost economic activity.
With fall graduation approaching these numbers could make soon to be college grads scared of the near future and the job application process.
Students such as Victoria Barnes, a fourth-year Florida A&M University political science student from Tallahassee, Fla., said she knows about the challenges she may face when it comes to the job application process.
“Getting a summer job can be difficult in itself so I don’t expect that getting salaried jobs will be easy.” said Barnes. “With such a competitive and slim job market it creates a level of urgency to be more assertive and aggressive when searching.”
The application process for some students may have included applications in fields that didn’t happen to be their major.
Only 27 percent of college graduates have a job that is related to their major according to Jaison Abel and Richard Dietz of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Melanie Mitchell, a fourth-year FAMU information technology student from Atlanta, added that she would be content with having a job that isn’t what she majored in.
“It’s not exactly scary to me because I know that I’m versatile,” Mitchell said. “As long as I’m efficient and my job pays well then I’m content.”
Victoria Barnes said the stats don’t really worry her and she was motivated by the September report.
“Personally statistics like that don’t scare me, they motivate me.” Barnes said. “I’m flexible and am willing to work both within and outside of my major.”