Georgia colleges will unleash 125,000 graduates on the job market this month, and their prospects for landing a real job are the best since the recession began in 2007.
But forgive Reginald Laurent for not sharing the world-is-my-oyster enthusiasm of the Class of 2011. Out of work for more than a year and subsisting on unemployment benefits and his fiancee's largess, Laurent sees the latest crop of grads as competition, vying for the same jobs and willing to accept less pay.
"It's like another sock in the belly, another thing we have to deal with," said Laurent, 50, a former mortgage broker from Fairburn. "The economy may be getting better, but with the additional job seekers it's like one step forward, two steps back."
Sarah Schuenemeyer, 23, who is set to graduate this week with an economics degree from Kennesaw State University, is Laurent's competition.
"I do have a lot more job opportunities because I'm not financially tied down, and I can go anywhere and companies know they can pay us less," said Schuenemeyer, who has lined up work with an Atlanta financial services firm.
Waves of new, young job seekers soon will inundate a labor pool overwhelmed by a half-million unemployed Georgians and a 10 percent unemployment rate.
More than half of the state's jobless have been without full-time work for 27 weeks or longer. Many have lost homes, savings, health insurance and unemployment benefits. They include midcareer, formerly well-paid managers and tradesmen willing to take lesser jobs and salaries to survive.
Many of them dread the entrance of 1.7 million U.S. college kids into the workforce this month.
"Companies don't really need people that have a lot of experience because they can get somebody at a lesser position to do the job cheaper," said Beth Tynan, 43, a laid-off bank executive from Norcross. "The expertise just isn't needed."
The National Association of Colleges and Employers says 19.3 percent more college grads will be hired this year than last year --- the first double-digit increase in springtime hiring since 2007. Jobs in the oil, gas, chemical, electronic manufacturing, finance and insurance industries are hot.
The Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University predicts hiring will rise 10 percent for new grads with bachelor's degrees. And CareerBuilder forecasts 46 percent of employers plan to hire college grads, up from 44 percent last year.
"Entry-level hiring has not returned to pre-recession levels, but this year's graduates should find markedly improved job-search conditions," said John Challenger, CEO of the Chicago-based Challenger, Gray and Christmas outplacement firm. "There definitely is pent-up demand for entry-level workers."
Georgia schools predict sunnier hiring days ahead for this year's graduates. At Emory University, 60 percent of job seekers with liberal arts or business degrees have found jobs, up from 45 percent two years ago.
This spring at the University of Georgia's job fair 153 employers set up booths to recruit 2011 grads. A year earlier, 139 companies did.
Scott Williams, executive director of UGA's career center, said an out-of-state company extended sales job offers recently to four UGA seniors.
"Each offer was declined because the students already had multiple offers," Williams said. "The economy is better, but while more companies are hiring, it's a slow progression. They're not hiring in full-force."
So many companies wanted to participate in Kennesaw State's career fair in February that the school had to turn some away. In all, corporate participation increased 10 percent this year.
Govind Hariharan, who heads the school's economics and finance department, estimates 175 of his department's 250 grads will find jobs that require a bachelor's degree. A year ago, maybe half his graduates did.
Ren Tamayo, an ex-Marine with a wife and child, will graduate Wednesday with a degree in finance and a job lined up with SunTrust Bank.
"I spent the last year looking for a job and it was bleak," said Tamayo, 25, of Marietta. "But this year I got the job I wanted with the salary I wanted. Still, I see people who graduated last year who don't have a job."
The unemployment rate for college grads under age 25 is 8.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, double the level for people older than 25. But the outlook for newly degreed 20-somethings is quickly improving.
The job pool for Americans aged 20-24 grew 2.4 percent during the first quarter of 2011 --- the largest increase of any age group. For those aged 45-54, like Laurent, the number of jobs dipped 1.1 percent.
"Experience can be viewed as a hindrance to some employers who would prefer to groom new players," Laurent said. "I view recent graduates as competition as they come in droves to a market that can't find homes for qualified, long-term unemployed individuals with over 25 years experience."
Laurent was a senior mortgage manager with Lenox Financial in Buckhead until his January 2010 layoff. One year, he made $102,000. He would take one-third of that amount today, or whatever Kennesaw State's Schuenemeyer or Tamayo will earn upon entering the workaday financial world.
"I don't have any pride when it comes to that," Laurent said.
Schuenemeyer empathizes.
"I know how hard it is. I know how much people are struggling," she said. "It's intimidating out there for me, too. But I just remind myself that everybody has to start somewhere."
Unemployment by educational level
Ages 20-24
*Less than a high school education: 31.9 percent
*High school education: 21.7 percent
*Bachelor's degree or higher: 8.5 percent
Ages 25 and over
*Less than a high school education: 15.2 percent
*High school education: 10.5 percent
*Bachelor's degree or higher: 4.3 percent.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (March data)
