Thousands of new graduates are now pounding the pavement looking for their first job. With all the recent layoffs, will they have much success?
According to the latest report from webmergers.com, 55 Internet companies shut down in April 2001, compared to only one dot-com shutdown in April 2000. Since January 2001, 435 Internet companies have folded. However, the layoffs aren't only affecting the dot-com sector. Many non-Internet companies are also scaling down their workforces. Peter Vogt, President of Career Planning Resources and producer of The Career Services Kiva (www.careerserviceskiva.com), a comprehensive news and information web site for college and university career services professionals, believes employers may increasingly decide not to fill open positions, especially if the economy continues on its apparent downturn.
"This could hurt new grads in that many of those open positions might be entry-level positions or positions deemed non-essential, which often turn out to be the ones new grads have the best shot at," Vogt said.
"I'm hearing more and more from people who graduated, say, a year or two ago and who now find themselves the victims of layoffs. These people haven't accumulated much professional experience yet, and so they'll likely be competing with brand new graduates for some entry-level jobs
