20
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 2009
BUSINESS
Job hunters look for new options
Law, engineering students find work opportunities scarce
BY JESSE RANGEL jrangel@kansan.com
The current state of the job market has the Office of Career Services at the School of Law concerned. The program's 66 percent job placement rate was in danger of slipping for Spring 2009 graduates.
So far, the rate for the school is at 60 percent. Todd Rogers, assistant dean for career services at the school said.
The School of Law and the School of Engineering are informing their graduates of new opportunities beyond the traditional full-time job. Fewer jobs are open for graduates overall, not just because jobs are being cut, but because more people with jobs are opting to stay in place.
The national job openings figures for May, released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, show job openings down 23 percent for professional and business services, down 26 percent for education and
down 26 percent for education and
healthcare, and down 23 percent for financial activities. Total jobs open in the Midwest are down 37 percent, from 824,000 to 515,000. The job openings rate is calculated by the jobs available for hiring on the last day of the month.
Rogers said some law firms were not hiring because employees who normally left to find a better job after three or four years were staying put longer. Cathy Schwabauer, director of the Engineering Career Center, said some engineering companies had told her they were hiring fewer graduates because the retirement rate had slowed.
However, Shwabauer said some companies were still making sure a good relationship existed, even when the companies couldn't offer jobs.
"Some companies are looking for more outreach opportunities," Schwabauer said. "They are saying: 'Can we help with a mock interview? Can we talk to student groups?'"
Larry Jacobson, director of the National Society of Professional Engineers, urged students to take professional accreditation exams.
"We strongly encourage all graduate students to take the fundamentals of engineering exam so that later on they can take the professional engineering exam," Jacobson said.
"A lot of students don't realize how important it is to be the part of the 10 percent who are licensed nationally. It's pretty hard to go back and get licensed after you graduate."
Jacobson said students should be ready for when jobs open.
"Given the turnover of engineering, with baby boomers leaving the industry, engineering students who are licensed will be able to name their paycheck," Jacobson said.
Schwabauer said that the lack of openings was temporary, and that retirements would pick up once the economy improved.
Rogers said some law firms were hiring,but were holding off a start date until January.
"We've had half a dozen students who have been told by their employer not to show up." Rogers said.
He said interest in the Bremyer Summer Intern Scholarship, a program that gives incentive for students to practice law in smaller Kansas towns, had increased.
Rogers said more students were inquiring about working in small law firms, non-profits and government agencies.
"It's so important to gain the practical experience," Rogers said.
Edited by David Ugarte
Online College Courses BARTONline.org
Having trouble getting your class schedule to work?
Dropped a class?
Need to add a class?
Most general education courses transfer to Kansas Regent schools.
Enroll now!
Enroll and find our schedule online!
www.bartonline.org
Chinese police employ curfew to end violence
BY WILLIAM FOREMAN
Associated Press
INTERNATIONAL
URUMQI, China — Sobbing Muslim women scuffled with riot police, and Chinese men welding steel pipes, meat cleavers and sticks rampaged through the streets Tuesday as ethnic tensions worsened in China's oil-rich Xinjiang territory, forcing officials to declare a curfew.
Online college courses offered by Barton Community College
The new violence in Xinjiang's capital erupted only a few hours after the city's top officials told reporters the streets in Urumqi were returning to normal following a riot that killed 156 people Sunday. The officials also said more than 1,000 suspects had been rounded up since the spasm of attacks by Muslim Uighurs against Han Chinese, the ethnic majority.
The chaos returned when hundreds of young Han men seeking revenge began gathering on sidewalks with kitchen knives, clubs, shovels and wooden poles. They spent most of the afternoon marching through the streets, smashing windows of Muslim restaurants and trying to push past police cordons protecting minority neighborhoods. Riot police successfully fought them back with volleys of tear gas and a massive show of force.
After the crowds thinned out, a curfew was announced from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. Police cars cruised the streets in the evening, telling people to go home, and they complied.
Harmony has been hard to achieve in Xinjiang, a rugged region three times the size of Texas with deserts, mountains and the promise of huge oil and natural gas reserves. Xinjiang is also the homeland for 9 million Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gers), a Turkies-speaking group.
Many Uighurs believe the Han Chinese, who have been flooding into the region in recent years, are trying to crowd them out. They often accuse the Han of prejudice and waging campaigns to restrict their religion and culture.
The Han Chinese allege the Uighurs are backward and ungrateful for all the economic development and modernization the Han have brought to Xinjiang. They also complain that the Uighurs' religion — a moderate form of Sunni Islam — keeps them from blending into Chinese society, which is officially communist and largely secular.
U. N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called the violence a "major tragedy."
White Chocolate
skateboards. shoes. apparel. local art.
933 Massachusetts
785. 856.WCHO