Romano Muñiz is on top of his game.
He's worked three internships with different accounting firms during his college years. But as a UF finance senior, that's just not good enough to land Muñiz a job after graduation.
"Everything is pretty much slim pickings," Muñiz said. "The market's bad, so I'm starting to readjust where I'm looking."
Jobs will be a lot scarcer for students like Muñiz who are graduating in winter or spring, said David Denslow, a UF professor and research economist.
Some future graduates are considering law school, international ventures or years of service instead of going into their chosen field.
On Friday, the Labor Department announced a loss of 533,000 jobs nationwide for November on top of an October loss of 320,000.
The recession could last until mid-2010, according to a presentation by UF's Chief Investment Officer Mike Smith at UF's Board of Trustees meeting Monday.
"I don't know how we're going to come out of this," Denslow said.
'Everything is so shaky.'
Florida alone lost about 156,00 jobs in the last year, according to Florida's October employment figures released by the Agency for Workforce Innovation.
The state's October unemployment rate was at 7 percent, which is slightly higher than November's national estimate of 6.7 percent.
As a result, UF has seen an increase in retention for graduate programs, including law and medical school, Denslow said.
Muñiz applied to accounting firms this semester he knew had been stable in the market for more than 20 years.
Now he is counting on acceptance into a UF entrepreneurship graduate program this summer to be more competitive.
Although Muñiz worked throughout college to avoid taking out loans, UF tuition fees and no job prospects will make it difficult to avoid post-graduate loans, he said.
"I'm excited, but at the same time, I hear about all these families with mortgage payments, and it makes me worried that I'm going into an unsecure field," he said. "Everything is so shaky."
Alex Mahfood, a UF finance senior, went to a career fair in spring to find an internship, which he said would make him a more marketable candidate when he graduates.
"It was pretty demoralizing to be honest," Mahfood said. After nobody hired him, he worked for his father over the summer, which made him realize he may be entering the workforce at the wrong time.
He and many of his friends are applying to law schools across the country. Mahfood said if he is accepted into a top-20 school, he's nearly certain he'll have to take out loans.
Unless students are in the top tier at the finance school, it's difficult to be hired with a bachelor's degree, he said.
"Now there's this sense of apathy among finance majors," he said. "People are asking themselves, 'Where am I going with this finance degree?'"
Don't overlook overseas ventures
Robert Butora applied to law school and researched a few other options, but digging into more loans wasn't an option for the political science senior.
Butora is considering the U.S. Navy's Officer Candidate School upon graduation. A position as a Judge Advocate General, the military equivalent of a lawyer, may give him experience in law while serving overseas, he said.
An increase in international business, religious studies and global humanity majors at UF has students turning to other options for post-college programs, Denslow said. Willingness to travel and master languages could differentiate students from other applicants, he said.
Others in search of an alternative to unemployment, like Butora, flock to the U.S. Naval Recruitment Office each week.
Petty Officer Muhammed Morad, a recruiter for the Gainesville office, said people sign up to acquire job training, college education, financial stability and family benefits.
"But lately, job security has been the reason why people are signing up," Morad said.
The Peace Corps saw a 40 percent increase in national recruitment by the end of the 2007-2008 fiscal year in September, said Amy Panikowski, director of the UF Peace Corps office.
UF, with 59 nominations, was one of the nation's top 20 recruitment offices.
David Leavitt, Peace Corps spokesman for the Atlanta division, said the strong turnout is a result of increased interest in global humanities and service.
"Peace Corps fits that paradigm and serves as a good segue for students into the job market," Leavitt said.
Although internships show a three- or four-month commitment to an employer, overseas programs of 24 months or more show stronger job dedication, Panikowski said. However, only 27 percent of employers agreed overseas experience is essential to being hired, according to a report by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University.
Who's hiring
A demand for medical personnel will increase hiring as well as open up new fields, Denslow said. Health and education services rank first among new Florida jobs, which expanded by 35,100 over the year due to growth in hospitals and ambulatory health care services.
"Biotech will get stronger over the next year," Denslow said. "Increased funding for biomedical research has been flat for President Bush, and both presidential candidates were pushing for that even with the budget crunch."
Even skills in green business are gaining prominence with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences' addition of a sustainability minor.
"If we've got a working economy, I think the green sector will do very well," said Les Thiele, a political science professor and faculty advisor for the minor.
President-elect Barack Obama's plan for distancing the U.S. from foreign oil and combating greenhouse gases and climate change will include a large investment in the green sector, Thiele said.
"It would be naïve to simply say that everybody in the green business area will be able to get a job," Thiele said. "I just think that these are pretty uncertain times regarding the market."
