No one needs you class of 2010...

By Tatiana Serna, Campus Representative, University of Rhode Island

“No one needs you class of 2010”, says Joe Queenan in the Wall Street Journal.

The article explains that the entry-level job market is very bad historically:

They [2010 graduates] will enter an economy where roughly 17% of people aged 20 through 24 do not have a job, and where two million college graduates are unemployed. They will enter a world where they will compete tooth and nail for jobs as waitresses, pizza delivery men, file clerks, bouncers, trainee busboys, assistant baristas, interns at bodegas.

According to Queenan 2010 grads face three enormous obstacles.

One, the economy, though improving at a glacial pace, is still a wreck. Two, nothing in most middle-class kids' lives has prepared them emotionally for the world they are about to enter. Three, the legacy costs that society has imposed on young people will be a millstone around their necks for decades.

I graduate from The University of Rhode Island in May of 2011. I see the fear in seniors eyes, we all know we are living in difficult times and articles such as these give chills up our spines. Questions we ask ourselves: How can we prepare for this jobless market? What can we do to set ourselves apart from the rest? Hopefully, the class of 2011 turns out better, it will be interesting to see if Queenan does a follow up article in May.