▲In a slowing U.S economy, job opportunities are shaped by uncertainty. As president of a small college, I am keenly aware of the job market that awaits this year's graduates. The recent news that Bear Steams was nullifying a few hundred job offers to business school students fits a pattern of corporate downsizing that isn't lost on college campuses across the USA. But even with the darkening economic clouds, rays of good news await this year's graduates. Sure, companies are laying off workers, but many are also looking for new talent, especially at the entry level.
As more than a million entrants flood the job market, students should know that in a global marketplace, language skills will go a long way. So will flexibility. If a grad is ready to accept an entry-level job, give a little on job requirements and move if the company asks, chances are he'll land a job. So despite the rising job losses, a new graduate should embrace the market as the first challenge of a long career.
▲In a normal recession, the to-do list is clear. Copies of Keynes are dusted off, the Fed lowers interest rates, the president and Congress cut taxes and hike spending. In time, purchasing, production and loans perk up, and Keynes is placed back on the shelf. No larger alterations to the economy are made, because our economy, but for the occasional bump in the road, is fundamentally sound.
This has been the drill in every recession since World War II.
Republicans and Democrats argue over whose taxes should be cut the most and which projects should be funded, but, under public pressure to do something, they usually find some mutually acceptable midpoint and enact a stimulus package. Even in today's hyperpartisan Washington, the odds still favor such a deal.
This time, though, don't expect that to be the end of the story -- because the coming recession will not be normal, and our economy is not fundamentally sound. This time around, the nation will have to craft new versions of some of the reforms that Franklin Roosevelt created to steer the nation out of the Great Depression。
36