THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 13, 1996 TAG: 9606130002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 45 lines
For graduating college students, the job market in Hampton Roads and throughout Virginia is the best in six years, says William F. Mezger, a senior economist with the Virginia Employment Commission.
The first four years of the '90s were bad ones for college graduates, he said, but job prospects began looking up in 1994 and have improved ever since.
For college graduates in high-tech fields, the task at hand is not finding a job; it's choosing the best of many job offers.
Working in the job seeker's favor is low unemployment. For April the figures are 3.8 percent for Virginia, 4.1 percent for Hampton Roads (the lowest since November 1990) and 5.4 percent for the nation.
To put that in perspective, 5.5 percent unemployment is generally considered ``full employment,'' with some people merely between jobs.
Still, all is not peachy for workers.
Even though the number of jobs is expanding more rapidly than the number of workers, pay for low-skill jobs has been stagnant. That pay might go up if unemployment stays low for a couple of years, but it's not something to count on.
``Employers are still pretty picky about the skills they want,'' Mezger said, so a worker hoping to make good wages needs those skills. Employers also want workers with experience, he said, so summer jobs for students are helpful, especially jobs in the fields the students are studying.
It's a hard fact of life that the economy is springing forward for some workers but standing still or retreating for others.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the number of computer engineers, systems analysts and scientists will double over the next decade, from 778,500 to 1.5 million nationwide.
The Washington Post reported this week that competition for computer specialists is so fierce that companies are raiding each other and offering signing bonuses of $2,000 to $3,000.
The 36 computer-science graduates at the University of Virginia this spring all had multiple job offers to choose from, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
Parents used to tell their children, ``Get a job.'' Now parents need to say, ``Get a skill,'' or perhaps, ``Get a high-tech skill.'' The job will follow. by CNB