Maryland’s unemployment rate is down and the number of jobs is up, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s October preliminary employment data.
Maryland business owners gained over 16,700 hires, the unemployment rate is down to 6.7 percent and the state recovered nearly 85 percent of the jobs lost during the recession, Governor Martin O’ Malley said in a statement Tuesday, Nov. 20.
“Maryland’s dynamic private sector continues to prove that we are on the cutting edge of innovation and that our greatest assets are the talents, skills, creativity, ingenuity and education of our people,” he said.
Sophomore exercise science major Rachelle Holloway said that she is still worried about finding a job because to her, it seems like a master’s degree is needed to be viable in the job market.
“I’m personally worried even though I’m in the health care industry,” she said.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers also published Job Outlook 2013 in September, which predicted a 13 percent increase in college hiring, and Michigan State University’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute reported a five percent increase in college hiring in their Recruiting Trends 2012-2013 report.
Towson’s Career Center staff generally gauges the job market by the number of job postings in Hire@TU and the number of employers actively recruiting on campus, Director of the Career Center Lorie Logan-Bennett said.
“Using those as measures, I’d say we’ve seen steady and consistent improvement over the past year and a half,” she said. “All of our job fairs have been filled to capacity with waiting lists and our job posting numbers continue to increase.”
Logan-Bennett said that students should focus on gaining relevant experience, building their network, starting their job search early.
“I would say that while the job market for college grads is improving, it’s still important for graduating students to do all they can to market themselves in a still-tight job market,” she said.
Freshman Shalini Balram said she doesn’t worry about finding a position post-college but that the economy, in its current state, will likely affect her job search, unless something changes.
“There is nowhere to go but up,” Balram said.