College seniors can look forward to fewer jobs, lower wages and diminished benefits upon graduation, according to an analysis the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) released a few weeks ago.
Although the market is gradually strengthening again, over the past five years employment rates for those within the studied demographic dipped lower than they had in almost 20 years. Most notably, the employment rate dropped by 3.3 percent overall between 2000 and 2003.
"Their employment rates were faltering along with the rest of the economy," said Elise Gould, an economist at EPI, a nonpartisan think tank.
She said that the negative trend was directly linked to a similar decline in the greater economy. "If you look at the overall economy, wages have been pretty stagnant," she said. "The labor market has not tightened substantially."
This translates into less economic flexibility and fewer benefits, such as healthcare, for recent college graduates seeking jobs.
And the weight of college loans makes employment concerns even worse. When coupled with a weak job market, this means that young employees will be getting less out of their paychecks after loan payments.
"They'll see their dollar not going as far, their debt is going to be harder to pay," said Gould. "It's going to be harder for them to buy a house, for example."
To compound the financial straits of recent graduates, beliefs have changed about who should bear the financial burden of college. Over the last 20 years, parents are increasingly deferring this responsibility to their children, explained Patricia Reilly, Director of Financial Aid here at Tufts.
Although the national trend has been troubling, Tufts has stood out as an example of responsible economic planning, Reilly said. The national rate of default on federal loans stands at five percent; by contrast, the Tufts rate is 0.3 percent, down from 0.6 percent last year.
"I think it's an indication that in general, when they graduate, Tufts students are pretty successful," she said. "We work very hard here in the financial aid office to make sure our students borrow reasonably and don't get in over their heads."
Sarah Hilbert (LA '06) bucked the negative economic trend, landing herself a job with a competitive salary and a sizeable benefits package at WBGH, a Boston affiliate of PBS.
She acknowledges that some of her friends have struggled with often tedious or frustrating positions but said that they had expected these inconveniences in their first jobs.
"As far as our salary, we knew our salaries were going to be low because we're new to these jobs," she said.
An English major, Hilbert was able to capitalize on her education and targeted the the television industry. She said, however, that many students who graduate from Tufts with less concrete career plans gravitate towards more lucrative jobs, or those that will allow them to begin ascending the corporate ladder.
"I feel like the people in college who weren't 100 percent sure of what they wanted to do have headed towards jobs, like in finance or as paralegals, with more competitive salaries," she said.
The EPI examined employment rates and wages for workers between the ages of 25 and 35 over the time period between 1979 and 2005.
