Everyone knows how hard it is to get a job in the current economic recession. Many students are graduating, and instead of landing a wonderful new job, they are simply keeping their college job. The New York Times reports that less than 20 percent of graduating college students found a job last year. John Challenger, a job market consultant, said job-seekers “will have to find new ways to get in front of hiring authorities, look where other people are not and be willing to take jobs that most people would avoid.” And that’s where Priority Candidates comes into the situation.

Lesley Mitler created Priority Candidates to help recent college graduates find a job. Priority Candidates has also partnered with the Greenberg Education Group, a tutoring company in New York City.

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Imagine this: Jenny Smith is a second-year teacher at a Happytown Elementary. Her students have been acing every standardized test they take. Smith is so proud of her students. But Smith isn’t the only one who is proud of the people who have learned from her; the college that Smith earned her degree from is also benefiting from the improved scores on her students’ tests.

On the opposite end of the spectrum: Jake Snow is another new teacher at Frownyville Middle School. His students’ test scores have been falling every year that he has been teaching. And now, the university where Snow graduated from is being scrutinized to see if they are adequately training their students.

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Image vie Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau

The job market is still a dismal place for college graduates. True, the unemployment rate has not risen past ten percent yet, but that is partly because many people have given up on their job hunt, causing the labor force to shrink. According to Business Week, the labor force decreased by almost 700,000 people  in December 2010. If it had not, the unemployment rate was expected to be 10.4 percent.

What can college grads do to find a job in this tough market? Part of the equation could be moving to a city that is actually hiring people and creating new jobs. What makes these cities the top cities to find a job in 2010?

There are certain locations that have advantages in terms of lower costs, improved access to talent, certain key industry resources, and other factors that help to drive things,” said Kevin Klowden, co-author of the Best-Performing Cities 2009 report.

So where should you move to up your chances of finding a job? Interestingly enough, four of the top ten are in Texas. But if slipping on your cowboy boots every day doesn’t appeal to you, check out the other six options.

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Personally, if I ever decided to become a lawyer, I would want to go to Harvard Law School. Why, you might ask?

Because Elle Woods from “Legally Blonde” went there, duh.

Thankfully the people at US News have a slightly stricter and more selective process for determining which schools make the best law schools. US News analyzes each school, based on the following quality assessment factors: peer assessment score, assessment by lawyers/judges, selectivity, median LSAT scores, median undergrad GPA, acceptance rate, placement success, employment rate for graduates, and bar passage rate.

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Evidently green studies and environmental science are the fastest growing trends in higher education. Many colleges are developing majors and minors in the fields of green studies and environmental science, and students are quickly enrolling in this new field.

In 2009 alone, more than 100 new programs were created across the nation in energy and sustainability-focused degree programs, according to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. This is a drastic increase from 2005, when only three new programs were added in these fields.

Why the sudden increase?

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According to a recent article by The New York Times, students who are majoring in the humanities such as language arts and literature, are facing one of the toughest job markets in recent decades.

The Modern Language Association (MLA) reports that faculty positions will decline 37 percent, the biggest drop since the group began tracking its job listings 35 years ago. The MLA is the largest group of language and literature scholars and professors in the world.

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We go to college to make money in the long run. Sure, we eat Ramon noodles and Hamburger Helper for four years, but we know that after graduation, our money woes will be over and we can eat steak and drink the finest foreign bottled water every day.

Unless, you are like the average graduating college student, and owe $23,200 in student debt.

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Man, that party last night was really fun! Sure, we had a little bit too much to drink, but that picture of Lindsay looking so silly definitely needs to go on Facebook immediately, right?

Wrong.

The things you put on your Facebook are not as private as you might think. In fact, many employers are determining who they should hire based on Facebook pages. Graduate schools also look at Facebook or MySpace. And more and more parents are communicating over social media sites.

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Social media and networking sites are becoming a huge part of our popular culture. Case in point, just have a read at the lyrics to “Now Generation” by the Black Eyed Peas:

“Myspace in your space. Facebook is a new place. Dip divin’ socializin’. I’ll be out in cyber space. Google is my professor. Wikipedia checker. Checkin’ my account. Loggin’ in and loggin’ out.”

And now, social networking sites are entering mainstream education. An Australian college, Griffith University, is now requiring that all journalism students take a course on Twitter education. The course will focus on proper Twitter writing practices and delivering as much information as possible in only 180 characters.

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It’s a scary time for college graduates. Although the economy has improved recently, we are still in a recession and jobs are hard to come by.

In looking at industries, retail lost 45,000 jobs, finance lost 42,000 jobs, and manufacturing lost 207,000 jobs, signalling the largest one-month decline in over 25 years.  Many college seniors are therefore considering graduate school, simply because there are not enough jobs.

Is there any hope?

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