Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 7, 1991 TAG: 9104060049
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: E/1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Trouble is, Kruger has found herself canceling interview slots at some of the 25 colleges and universities she visits in the Southeast because would-be applicants don't seem interested.
"It's been a unique year," said the Pittsburgh-based recruiter, "because the kids have been reading the newspapers and watching television. Their attitude has almost become, `I'm going to take the first job I can get.' I almost see them as being humble-assertive."
Kruger mines Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia for top-notch engineering grads who might dovetail nicely with Westinghouse, a diversified energy, communications and utility systems company. Indeed, 90 percent of the company's nationwide hiring will be engineers.
And while she's hesitant to concede that hiring at her company is recession-proof, Kruger - herself an engineer - is quick to point out that the demand for young, innovative engineers is increasing as the supply is dwindling.
U.S. high-technology companies continually must stoke the incubator of new ideas if they are to remain competitive, and many of the freshest ideas spring from university laboratories. Some companies cannot afford not to recruit, regardless of the economy.
Recruiting "has to be done consistently," she said. "It's not something you can get into and out of."
Dallas-based Electronic Data Systems, whose Virginia feeders include Tech, James Madison and George Mason universities, hired some 3,000 college graduates last year. This year, the interviewing continues, but the offers will be off slightly, said Kathy Gow, manager of campus relations for the East Coast.
"The biggest change we've seen in recruiting is the number of resumes coming through the door," Gow said. "We're just bombarded."
Still, Westinghouse may be more the exception than the rule in the Recession of '91. Recruiters from such diverse companies as Norfolk Southern Corp., Corning Inc. and Burlington Industries said their college graduate haul this year will be lighter than previously.
This spring, the more than 6,000 colleges in the United States are expected to graduate more than 1 million bachelor's, 321,000 master's and 35,900 doctoral degree recipients. The recession has spurred many corporations to cut costs by laying off thousands of workers in the face of sluggish or declining sales.
The result: One of the most competitive job markets in years. Graduates are not only competing against each other; they're going head-to-head with last year's graduates who still are unemployed and with some who have recently been laid off.
A nationwide survey of 549 companies by Michigan State University's Career Development and Placement Services projects a 9.8-percent drop in entry-level jobs for college graduates this year.
An annual survey by Northwestern University's Placement Center offers an equally dismal outlook. Of 320 companies surveyed, 42 percent said that they plan to hire fewer people with bachelor's degrees and 37 percent will reduce its hiring of those with advanced degrees.
Boom times are gone - for now.
"This year we've put that kind of recruiting completely on hold," said Juan Cunningham, Norfolk Southern's manager of employment. The Norfolk-based transportation company usually hires 10 graduating engineers each year, a process that requires 40 campus visits. This year, none.
Consider also a few company facts: Norfolk Southern's net income from the fourth quarter of 1990 was off 21 percent while net income for the year slipped 8.3 percent from 1989. The first quarter of 1991, tainted by the Persian Gulf War, doesn't look "so hot" either, Cunningham said, and the company's employee turnover remains low.
"With those kinds of numbers there really is little need to do much college recruiting," he said, "but we still do it. We need the new talent.
"Certainly we've put things on hold, but they won't stay on hold very long. I don't anticipate we'll put things on hold for more than a year or 18 months."
Others, such as Corning, are feeling the downturn in the auto industry. Demand has dipped for products like their ceramic substrates used in catalytic converters - and made in Christiansburg - prompting a cutback in new hires.
"It's replacement hiring as opposed to growth hiring," said George Brewster, manager of salaried recruiting and college relations. Job-hunting graduates are "apprehensive this year," he said, "because offers have been very slow in coming from companies."
Tony Michaels, manager of organization planning and development at Burlington Industries in Greensboro, N.C., agreed. New hires will be down at least 20 percent from last year. "Simply, it's a reaction to the current economy. When we get into recession, we don't have as much turnover."
Recruiting this past fall was fairly routine, corporate and college officials said, unmarred by war and recession. With the spring came heightened student anxiety as students watched a war on television and learned of widespread corporate retrenchment. Some companies even canceled spring visits because of in-house cutbacks; those who pressed on raised their standards, pinching the mediocre students.
"The person who's planned for it, has good paper together, is going to get a job," said James Malone, Tech's director of placement services. "But it's very uneven. This looks like one the the worst years we've had since the early 1980s."
Last school year, 685 different organizations visited the Blacksburg school. This year the number probably will slip to about 600, Malone said, though he and others expect the market to bounce back by next fall.
Carolyn McCorkindale, Roanoke College's coordinator of career planning and placement, said "the biggest thing [she's] noticed is that the little companies aren't calling." Still, 29 companies conducted interviews on the Salem campus, and another 25 sent representatives to a February career fair.
Hardest hit are liberal arts majors, who only a few years ago were being touted as the hottest prospects for companies looking for employees who could "communicate."
"We feel our liberal arts majors . . . really have to work harder at selling their skills because their skills are so broad," McCorkindale said.
"I do have some students at my door all the time: They hear it; they see it; they're panicky. But that's just a handful of students."
Then, too, there's the FBI. "We're hiring," said Gary Rice, a special agent applicant coordinator in Baltimore. The Federal Bureau of Investigation plans to hire between 700 and 800 special agents this year - whatever the economy or the federal budget deficit.
"Fiscal '92, which begins in October, will be even larger than this year," he said. "They're expecting hiring 900."
by CNB