Graduation. For some, it’s a glimmer in the distance. For others, it’s one class within reach. While the walls of ASU keep us safe from the real world, we calmly sit back and daydream of the life to come. We close our textbooks, prop our feet up and ponder the career ahead. Some of us will be doctors; others will be lawyers. Of course, the majority of us don’t aspire to fulfill the dreams of our parents. But no matter what the degree, when the tassel moves from right to left, a new chapter begins and the race is on. Our life has finally started.
Scarier than joining the workforce however, is not getting a job.
Forty percent of May ASU graduates are still stuck at the starting line, according to a study by the University’s Career Services. Mom’s lasagna grows old as they bury themselves underneath a mountain of applications and nervously anticipate their first student loan payment.
And for us students who wait for our tassel turn, all we can do is think, “Better you than me.”
But some studies do show that the job market is improving— slowly.
The Arizona Republic reported that 24 percent of spring graduates nationwide had a job lined up before commencement, up from 20 percent in spring 2009. While it is an improvement, it doesn’t compare with the class of 2007, which had an incredible 51 percent.
The Republic also reported that officials from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., said the class of 2010 is “facing the worst job market in at least a quarter-century.”
Maybe Van Wilder wasn’t just a party animal. Perhaps he knew how to play the market. Right now, it looks like the best thing we can do is ride out the storm.
Unfortunately, prolonging graduation or moving on to graduate school is unaffordable for many of us. The college levies that keep us safe from real-world unemployment are bound to break, just like our wallets.
As graduation looms, getting a job is no longer about fulfilling our childhood dreams; it’s about surviving financially and praying mom and dad won’t have to prepare our rooms once a diploma is received.
A Duke University study showed chief financial officers believe national employment numbers will grow by 1 percent during the next 12 months, according to an article by the National Association of College and Business Officers.
We know we can’t yell at the economy and tell it to hurry up, and we know our state and federal leaders on both sides of the aisle have struggled to give businesses what they need to grow.
But we, the classes of 2011, 2012, 2013 and now 2014, would like our government leaders and school administrators to see our financial handcuffs at least one more time to ensure they don’t relax in their efforts because of a small sign of improvement.
To them, this is just a little reminder: Graduation is coming, and, for a lot of us, it’s more like a walk to the gallows than a day of celebration.
