College seniors are anxious about the job market, and with due cause. Many are applying for scores of entry level jobs without an interview in return and have taken to looking for unpaid internships.

However, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), a source of information about the employment of college graduates, employers have revised original hiring projections and now expect their college hiring to stay even with last year’s levels.

In light of volatile financial markets, NACE recently re-polled employers that had provided hiring projections in August. The result: Compared to their earlier projections, responding employers expect to decrease their hiring levels by 1.6 percent. However, in comparison to their actual hires from the Class of 2008, respondents expect to hire about 1.3 percent more graduates from the Class of 2009.

“Overall, hiring looks flat for now and some employers are indicating some movement to cut back,” says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director. “In August, approximately one-third of employers said they were going to trim their college hiring; in our current poll, however, 52 percent said they were going to adjust their college hiring downward.”
The decreased expectation for college hiring that occurred between August and October was broadly felt across industries. Only government as a sector saw a significant increase in hiring expectations, while manufacturing and professional services remain essentially flat. All other industry categories decreased their hiring expectations for the Class of 2009.

“Consequently, many of this year’s graduates will find fewer openings available to them and may have to consider different types of opportunities, industries, and organizations than they planned. Most importantly, they need to use the resources available to them through their campus career center to help them identify and connect with potential employers,” says Mackes.

NACE will continue to monitor the job outlook for the Class of 2009 and will report on hiring projections as they relate to changes in the economic environment. NACE’s Salary Survey Winter report, scheduled for distribution in late January, will provide a first look at demand for new college graduates by specific discipline.

America’s automobile industry is consistently declining, and one large automaker is planning to hold off on hiring any new entry level job employees until 2009.

Ford Motor Co. recently announced it will not hire employees for entry level jobs, lower wage positions or hourly positions until next year, according to an article by Reuters. The hiring freeze will most likely affect many people looking for Michigan jobs.

The company also plans to eliminate all its hourly workers who have accepted buyout offers by the end of the year.

“Ford is offering plant-by-plant buyouts to hourly workers,” the article notes. “The company has not said how many total employees it would like to trim through the buyout offers. Ford previously had made companywide buyout offers to trim thousands of blue-collar jobs in North America. It has cut its U.S. hourly workforce by about 40,000 over the past three years to roughly 54,000.”

The auto industry as a whole has been declining as of late, mostly due to high gas prices, and is hurting Michigan’s economy. In July 2008, the state saw an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent, the highest in the nation, and a considerable amount higher than the national unemployment rate of 5.7 percent. Michigan had a total non-farm employment of 4,212,500 in July 2008, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, a decrease of 1.1 percent from last year.

Detroit, which serves as the center of the nation’s auto industry, has been hit the hardest. The city saw an unemployment rate of 10.9 percent in July 2008, and had a total non-farm employment of 748,100, a decrease of 1.7 percent from last year.

“The auto industry will be a part of reviving Michigan’s economy, as it continues an evolution that recognizes innovation, research and development as its core advantage,” according to the Grand Rapids Press. “But as Michigan’s prime industry retools and adjusts, the state must also be in hot pursuit of industries Michigan is uniquely positioned to ferment-some in areas Ms. (Mayor Jennifer) Granholm and lawmakers have already identified, such as alternative energy and biotechnology.

With graduation less than five months away, it’s time for many college seniors to begin planning their transition into the workforce. If you haven’t done so already, begin formulating a job-search strategy and crafting your resume.

Here are seven tips that can save you from the stresses of last-minute scrambling.

1) Decide What You Want to Do and Where You Want to Do It.
You may have this figured out already if you’re majoring in something specific like engineering, graphic design, or marketing, and your folks have put the welcome mat out back at home. If that’s the case, you can skip to Step 3.

But what if you’re one of the unsure masses, not quite certain what you want to do? Start by looking at where you have excelled in your academic work and your extracurricular activities. What were your favorite courses? What are your strongest skills? What would you find utterly abhorrent?

And where do you intend to live after you receive your degree? A big city offers more job opportunities and plenty of nightlife, usually with a much higher cost-of-living than suburban or rural settings. Don’t overextend yourself financially, since you’ll need to make room in your budget for the day when you start making payments on those student loans.

2) Assess Your Job-Related Skills.
How well do you communicate, verbally and in writing? Do you perform your best by yourself, or as part of a project team? Have you consistently completed assignments on time and met your deadlines at school or at work? How well do you organize and prioritize your work? What computer skills do you have that others might not have (and which ones do you need to improve)?

Employers want to know if you can perform the specific tasks that are part of a job, but they also want to know how well you can fit in with the rest of the staff. That’s why communication and organizational skills are important, as well as – in most cases – how well you perform within a team or group. Be honest with yourself. Know your strengths and weaknesses, and seek a job and workplace culture that aligns with them.

3) Start Writing a Resume.
Once you know the kind of job you want and the type of company you’d like to work for, begin drafting an Objective for your resume.

For instance:

Objective: To build upon a solid marketing education and hands-on experience by landing a challenging position on the marketing team of a well established, dynamic organization that values creativity, energy, and commitment to excellence.

After the Objective, detail your educational background, emphasizing coursework directly related to your target position. Next, describe any relevant work experience (paid or volunteer) you have had, especially internships in your targeted field.

A word about grade-point averages: If your overall GPA is impressive (higher than 3.0 on a 4.0 scale), go ahead and include it on your resume. If it’s not-so-impressive, mention the GPA for your major subjects only (assuming it’s higher than the overall); or mention your last semester’s GPA (same assumption), or just leave it off.

4) Take in a Few Job and Career Fairs.
Your college or university may hold on-campus career fairs during the spring semester, inviting employers that are looking to recruit graduating seniors. And check the local papers or online postings for any private job and career fairs.

Bring plenty of copies of your resume to give to employers. Take along paper and pen (or even a laptop) to jot down notes – and if possible, carry it all in a professional-looking briefcase rather than your everyday backpack. (If you received a gift card for Christmas, here’s an option of what to use it for.) Collect business cards from everyone you speak to so you can follow up. Want to stand out? Dress conservatively in a neat, business-like outfit (another good gift-card option)! On-campus job fairs tend to be more casual, which makes it all the more noticeable if you make the extra effort to look professional.

Worst-case scenario is that job fairs will provide learning opportunities to help you hone your self-marketing skills. Best case? You land a job!

5) Network Online and Offline.
Build, cultivate, and grow an online network via LinkedIn, Facebook, or any similar online networking site (And take down those compromising photos of you from that frat party).

Don’t be shy about letting people know about your career intentions post-graduation. You never know if someone you meet – or even a not-so-close relative – might work with someone who knows someone who … you get the idea.

At the same time, be willing to help others find jobs by passing along their names to someone you know. That’s the beauty of networking: It’s a two-way street where everyone has the potential to help everyone else.

6) Practice Your Interviewing Skills.
First, be sure you understand two things:

* It’s not about what the company can do for you, it’s what you can do for the company! In an interview, your job is to communicate – with energy and enthusiasm – the potential value you bring to the company, and the reasons you’re qualified to fulfill its needs.
* A good interview is a give-and-take conversation, not a one-sided inquisition. You can (and should) ask as many questions as you answer. Asking questions sends a clear message that you want to learn more about the job and company to gain a sense of whether it would be the right move for you.

7) Get to Know the Folks at Your School’s Career Center.
They’re expecting you! It’s crazy not to use this free resource. As the semester begins, make an appointment. It’s there specifically to help students prepare for the move into the professional world.

The career advisers in that office should be able to help you write a resume, practice and fine-tune your interviewing skills, advise you on your wardrobe, show you job-seeker resources, and supply you with contacts at companies that will be looking to hire new grads like you in just a few short months.

The working world awaits. Use this time wisely – for planning, networking, and writing your career documents – and you’ll be ready for the “real world” before the ink is dry on your diploma.

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Pongo™Resume (http://www.pongoresume.com)

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rick_Saia

Related site: Experience.com

While many other writers and researchers tend to offer the positive trend initially. And, later sneak in the bad news. Rather than pull any diversionary tactics, here is the news on entry level jobs in 2007. You may read them and weep, or read them and rejoice whichever the case may be as far as employment ranks on your life list.

In weatherman terms, it is a partially sunny extended forecast with entry-level jobs having a flat salary for the most part of the 2007 days. This projection is expected to last only a portion of the day and the rest of the day expected to be sunny adding to an increase in employability conditions around the globe. For this reason, you can anticipate an increase in entry-level hiring up 37 percent this year compared to 2006. Obviously, this is a continuing trend of increasing employment and Internet recruiting as seventy-two percent planned on an increase in 2006 hiring over sixty-four percent in 2005. This means of those 100% surveyed, 99% responded with plans to do more entry-level hiring than those in previous years do.

Many employers suggest these increasing numbers are attributed to a strong and strengthening economy, in addition to continuing competition among applicants, and a rise in the number of internships per company making positions easy to fill while costing them less per employee. It is true; internships tend to create animosity between new graduates, and students because many entry-level positions require no real life experience and are easily filled by students once this burden is removed from the hiring process. However, the salary issue may tend to create a reduction in the quality of life for those who fill these positions because the compensation remains flat. This flattening of salaries is blamed on several causes, but primarily the inflation factor contributes to the cost of living. This cost of living increase is a major factor in the final equation, which tends to greatly alter the quality of life for employees holding these positions due to the ability or inability to afford those things desired in life. Realistically, if everything one buys rises in price, but income remains static, there are going to be compensations and trade offs made in the process. While it may be just one factor, everyone agrees salary is one major consideration for anyone in the market for a job.

Although, do not be misled in to thinking those entry-level job seekers are intent on actual salary considerations alone, more than percent of recent graduates suggest they want to obtain stimulating and satisfying work rather than focus all of their energy on monetary compensation for time spent. The next highest percentage a recent survey shows is that new hires and recent graduates who are job seekers also want to land a job in which they have upward mobility within the company.

Clearly, companies need to recruit new hires that fit their particular agenda and mesh with the individual as much as the applicant expects to mesh within a particular company. Ours is not the first to suggest that entry-level applicants intend to obtain positions, which he or she deems “satisfying.” Earlier this year, another important survey revealed very much similar aspects of the new generation of workers. It seems the new generation is much more willing to trade off a few bucks in exchange for landing a job, which appeals to their sense of purpose in life rather than one, which merely fits a budget. Even those who graduate college with an enormous student loan burden still plan to seek out employers, which tend to offer something more than a paycheck when all is said and done.