By Heather Chambers
Arizona Daily Wildcat

JOHN HELGASON/Arizona Daily Wildcat Chemical engineering senior Brian Constance completes lab work in the Arizona Health Sciences Center last Friday. Constance said he hopes to find a job in the field of biomedical engineering.

It's a Monday afternoon and engineering students are staring at their computer screens while bathed in the fluorescent lights of an underground room in the engineering department.

Chemical engineering senior Brian Constance and a classmate glance from their notebooks to their computer screens and back again. They have been assigned to design a mock oil refinery for a chemical engineering design class, one of their last core curriculum classes before graduation.

While Constance concentrates on his final course requirements, he must also keep busy searching for a way to survive after the tassel hits the other side of his mortarboard in May.

The job market Constance and his classmates face is one that differs drastically from as little as a year ago. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for 2000 was 4 percent - the lowest percentage of unemployed Americans since 1992. But, as of this month, the unemployment rate has risen to 5.6 percent nationwide - the first rise in the rate of unemployment in a decade.

Although the events of Sept. 11 did not cause an entire shift in the already-failing U.S. economy, they helped turn an eight-month economic slowdown into a national recession.

Three months from now, Constance will join the graduation class of 2002, a class that must now contend with a failing economy and rising rates of unemployment. Faced with what economists are calling a dwindling job market, some students are beginning to find themselves struggling to land a job at the end of their college experience.

Graduation: the last leg

Sandra Garber, director of admissions, advising and student services for the College of Education, says the job market for 2002 education graduates fares better than it did five years ago. She attributes the change to a nationwide shortage of teachers that has emerged as a result of rising retirement rates and the fact that teachers often move on to other fields of study.

"We're seeing most elementary teachers are being employed. The economy doesn't affect teachers. You still need teachers," she says.

Areas in high demand include high school math, science, Spanish and K-12 special education. This kind of demand is good news for would-be teachers, but leaves the rest of the world still wrapped up in the hunt for jobs - especially in the areas of communication, automotive, mechanical and financial services.

But not every area of study is suffering in the receding economy. Pharmacy senior Ryan Forrey says the job market for students in his profession fares well because of a nationwide pharmacy shortage - but that employers aren't offering the same $10,000 signing bonuses as last year.

EMILY REID/Arizona Daily Wildcat "Keep a focus on what you enjoy, what makes your life meaningful. So even if you have to wait tables for a while, you'll know the direction you want to go in. And be creative about how to do it. If you love kite-flying, and you can find a way to do that as your job, that's perfect." - Julia Balen associate director, women's studies department

"There's a Walgreens on every corner, so it's really easy to get a job - they need people," he said.

Forrey says a shortage exists because new chain pharmacies are continually opening and the capacity of U.S. pharmacy schools hasn't increased to meet a higher demand.

"It's a pendulum as far as the shortage and then having a surplus, and I think it's probably reached its peak," he said.

Constance has interviewed four times with W.L. Gore & Associates, which produces fluoropolymer, a product used in electronics, medical implants and fabrics. Constance said he hopes to find his niche in biomedical engineering.

He said he first surveyed the job market in semi-conductors, but after those industries took a financial hit, he opted to look at biomedical engineering.

"The way I structured my classes, I had both avenues to go down," he said.

But even after interning with Intel for two summers, the company told Constance in December it would not be hiring full-time employees because of a temporary hiring freeze, although it has since begun hiring again.

Securing a job in an unstable economy has challenged students to embark on a more selective job searching process.

"You go through a lot of steps before they are comfortable offering you a position and making sure to get a very dedicated candidate, someone who's a good fit with the company, too."

Constance must now sit out the wait to see if W.L. Gore will be comfortable with him.

Post-grad: the search continues

Joy Terry fumbles through stacks of orange and white fliers on a desk in Career Services, but says she's unsure what she's looking for.

When Terry graduated with a degree in ecology from UA in 1995, the San Francisco 49ers won the title of first team to win five Super Bowls, Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" topped the music charts, and President Bill Clinton had not yet been impeached. Just seven years ago, a much different job market existed for UA graduates.

At the suggestion of a professor, Terry moved to Indonesia to design fish hatcheries for a fish farm.

"There's always been more jobs in Asia - in general a lot more aquaculture," Terry says, acknowledging a difference in foreign ecological job markets.

Students across campus seem to echo the same sentiments as Terry - they're either staying in Tucson simply as a result of convenience or leaving because they find more jobs in the East or Midwest.

And statistics support this push to move east. According to December 2001 figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, North Dakota had the lowest unemployment rate, at 2.8 percent. Other Midwestern states - such as South Dakota at 3.2 percent, Nebraska at 3.4 percent and Iowa at 3.5 percent - came in a close second.

The two states with the highest rates of unemployment are Oregon at 7.5 percent and Washington at 7.1 percent. Most other states sit in a mid-range, from 4 percent to 6 percent - Arizona toward the higher and at 5.6 percent.

After Terry explored the market outside the United States, she said she moved back to Tucson and found a much different job market.

She searched the job offers and settled for a position in computer technical support, where she said the benefits were good.

But Julia Balen, associate director and adviser in the women's studies department, says having a degree in hand doesn't always equate job security.

AMY WINKLER/Arizona Daily Wildcat "There's a Walgreens on every corner, so it's really easy to get a job - they need people," said pharmacy senior Ryan Forrey about the growing demand for pharmacists. Forrey currently works in the Fry's pharmacy at Speedway Boulevard and Pantano Way

"Ninety-nine percent of the undergraduate degrees put students at the same level. What they say to employers is that you have perseverance, that you have a certain step above in reading, writing and thinking skills, hopefully, and that you're going to stick to things."

But Terry said she's going back to school for an agriculture and biosystems engineering degree because she no longer wants to work in computers.

"In Tucson, in general, it's not easy to find a job," she says.

Despite a lagging economy and uncertain futures, Balen offers this advice to graduates: "Keep a focus on what you enjoy, what makes your life meaningful. So even if you have to wait tables for a while, you'll know the direction you want to go in. And be creative about how to do it. If you love kite-flying and you can find a way to do that as your job, that's perfect."

Employment: putting the pieces together

Because of the competition students face today, economists like Gerald Swanson, an associate economics professor at UA, suggest getting your name - and resumé - out to employers now so companies will consider students once the economy stabilizes.

"The economy, I believe, will be back on track this summer. It'll be a slow economy, not like the roaring economy of the 1990s."

Swanson said that a year ago, at least 60 percent of his economics students had job offers, but because of a global overproduction across all industries, especially in semi-conductors, the economy now is vastly different.

"There's an incredible amount of uncertainty. People are playing it safe," he said.

But perhaps students are playing it too safe. Waiting until the last minute to begin the job-hunting process can sometimes prove futile.

Jack Perry, a Career Services counselor, says he doesn't see the majority of students until their last semester senior year, who come seeking guidance about what to do after graduation.

As for the current economic situation, Constance says: "I don't really go by what people are saying because that can color the way you think. If you go into (job searching) that way, then you set yourself up for failure. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Perry's advice on job-hunting echoes Constance's sentiment: Students must absolutely take the job-searching process upon themselves.

"There are jobs out there. I think the perception is that there aren't," Perry said.

Perry says that even with the bleak economic status, students will still be able to find jobs, but that they will have to work harder to find there specific niche.

Career Services employees urge students to be more proactive about finding a job, whether that means talking to more employers or sending out more résumés.

Several years ago, jobs were publicized en masse whereas now, students must seek open positions more actively.

"It's quite difficult to get a job through normal means," Constance says about using only Career Services to find a job.

"It's a competitive pool of students. Students vie for a very small number of positions in a very select amount of companies," he says.

Maggie Burnett and Connor Doyle contributed to this report.