The hiring picture for recent graduates is rosier than when Anna Marie Smith, now 27, graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina in May 2009.
After six months of seeking employment, she found work with a nonprofit group in Houston without health insurance or a retirement savings plan. She was laid off 18 months later and ended up doing admissions work at Rice University. After about two years, she opted for graduate school in New York.
Smith held several part-time jobs before finding a position with a college admission consulting and tutoring company, where she still works. It allowed her to complete a master’s of fine arts in design criticism at night. After graduating last month, her debt is now more than $40,000. She said she hopes to find work writing about design, architecture and urban planning.
“Some of my job choices have been more out of desperation and to pay the bills,” Smith said. “Finding a job that gets you the income you need and the type of career you want is a luxury for people my age.”