Job market tight for 30K college grads in Utah this year


11 photos
Save Story

Show 3 more videos

Leer en español

Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — It's graduation season for thousands of college students across the country and as they receive their diplomas, now comes the daunting task for many to find a job.

It's not entirely a dire picture for them. KSL-TV spoke with students who found work before they graduated as well as those who are still looking.

College grads in Utah

In Utah, about 30,000 men and women have, or are, graduating this year, and many of them will find a job in their field of study. However, others will be forced to find any type of job that has nothing to do with what they got their degree in.

26-year-old Justin Andersen is one. He has a wife and three kids and just received his degree from Utah Valley University. He wants to be a history teacher.

"I've hit the applications big time. Sent out resumes everywhere," Andersen said. "Not a lot of job openings in education, especially when it comes to history teachers. So it's been kind of hard."

A snapshot of the average college graduate in Utah:
  • They spend about 6.5 years earning a bachelor's degree
  • It costs them about $17,000 to get that degree
  • It is about a 50-50 split between men and women receiving those degrees
  • The most employable majors include: nursing, software developers, computer programmers and construction supervisors
  • About half of all graduates have student loans to pay back
  • The average amount of debt is about $18,000

While we were with him, another rejection letter popped up on his computer screen, one of several he's gotten. Justin remains optimistic, though he realizes he may have to find a job that's not in the field he studied for.

That's a situation many students find themselves in. Surveys conducted in the last two years have shown that roughly 50 percent of graduates nationwide were working at jobs where no degree was required.

"I was hoping that all my hard work would pay off," said Hannah Blackburn, a Utah State University graduate.

For Blackburn, it did. She got her degree from Utah State in International Marketing, and 12 days after receiving her diploma, she got a job in her field of study.

Kristen Otero is in a similar situation. She earned two bachelor degrees at UVU, and started working as a data analyst five days after she graduated.

"I've always been interested in science and I always wanted to pick something for a career that would be really solid," Otero said.

The average college graduate in Utah spends over six years and $17,000 earning a bachelor's degree. The most employable majors include nursing, software developers, computer programmers and construction supervisors. About half of all graduates have student loans to pay back and the average amount of debt is about $18,000.

Andersen laughs as he's asked if he went into debt for education.

"Of course I had to go into big debt to finance my education," Andersen said.

Andersen says and Otero both say their debt is more than the state average. But Blackburn is one of the lucky grads that is graduating without any burden.

"No, I am debt free! I know, my parents are very proud in doing such," Blackburn said.

Nationally, the statistics aren't encouraging for the college class of 2013. Employers have indicated they plan to hire fewer new college grads this year compared to last.

How to stand out to potential employers

That said, there are jobs out there, and there are ways to get noticed by a potential employer.

First of all, don't wait until graduation— start looking very early. Network with anyone and everyone, as often as you can.


So starting with this job, I really just started talking to people. Saying hey, I'm graduating and I'm looking for a job and started that communication line.

–Hannah Blackburn, USU graduate


Blackburn just got hired at a Salt Lake marketing firm. While still at USU, she made sure to develop solid relationships with professors, mentors and other colleagues. And for her, it worked.

"So starting with this job, I really just started talking to people," she said. "Saying hey, I'm graduating and I'm looking for a job and started that communication line."

Otero graduated with bachelor's degrees in science and biotechnology. Knowing a lot of fellow students would be competing for jobs in that field, she started researching potential companies and sending out resumes several months before she got those diplomas.

"So I'm thinking, gosh I need to get out there before they do," Otero said. "You know, before the whole entire market is flooded with 300 people looking for maybe the 15 or 20 jobs that are going to be out there."

Kristen and Hannah are fortunate to get jobs right out of college, in their career of choice. Thousands of graduates across the country would be envious.

Employer's Perspective

To get an employer's perspective, KSL-TV visited Pluralsight, a Davis County company that provides online educational courses for website designers. CEO Aaron Skonnard started the company nine years ago and now it has clients around the world.

"I want to hire people that are constantly reading, who are constantly watching what's happening in the industry with the trends and moving with it," Skonnard said.


"I want to hire people that are constantly reading, who are constantly watching what's happening in the industry with the trends and moving with it." PluralSight CEO Aaron Skonnard

He says he wants people who can "learn how to learn"— that is, be motivated and a self-starter. In his high-tech business, it's always changing, and his employees have to keep up.

"So those people who know how to quickly adapt and pick up new things and can go home and research and work on their own and learn new things quickly, is the kind of people we want," he said.

Advice for recent grads

Another key piece of advice: make sure you do your homework about the companies you send a resume to. Make sure you really want to work there.

"This is a career choice. This is something you may be doing for 15 or 20 years. It better be a company that you like," Otero said.

Something else to consider— many jobs are global in scope, and having foreign language skills can be a real plus. For example, the investment bank Goldman Sachs has a large office here in Salt Lake.

"But there are many other languages that are concentrational [sic] that are spoken here that we as a firm leverage," said David Lang, managing director at Goldman Sachs. "Because we are doing business around the world and having people who have those languages is very very important to us."

So for the student who is still a year or two away from graduation? Well, no one can predict what the job situation might be in 2014 or '15. But don't wait, start preparing now. And have a Plan B and C just in case.

In a KSL-TV poll, 80 percent say that graduates have it worse now than 10 years ago.

Results from KSL-TV's graduates poll
Is the job outlook for 2013 college graduates better or worse compared to what graduates faced a decade ago?
  • 80% say it's worse now for graduates
  • 20% say it's better now for graduates

"I think the biggest thing is that graduating from college is not the end result. That's not what you're working toward," Andersen said. "You're working toward that step past graduation on how you can affect your community and affect how you can make a successful contribution." Currently, most students have loans at a fixed 3.4 percent interest rate. But according to the law, that rate is scheduled to double to 6.8 percent on July 1st.

But the house voted today on a proposal that would avoid that hike, but tie future loan rates to the fluctuating financial markets. Now the bill goes to the senate, where it will face an uphill battle, and the President has said he'll veto it.

Student loan debt in the U.S. totals more than $1 trillion— only mortgage debt is higher.

Photos

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Keith McCord

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast