Graduating college students tackle struggling job market

A recent study shows 8.8 percent of new college graduates are unemployed.So are seniors graduating with jobs?

Brigham Young University-Idaho was graduating its first class of 2013 on Friday night.

More than three years ago, Doug Foxford walked onto campus ready to start his college career.

“I came in I signed up for business management because I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do. It seemed like a good fallback,” said Faxford, a graduating senior at BYU-Idaho.

But while he was finishing up his final year at school, he had constantly been hearing many negative remarks about the unemployment rate of recent college graduates, such as “jobs aren’t really out there for people my age, that there’s no jobs for graduates,” said Faxford.

But instead of worrying, “I’m going to make my own future,” said Foxford.

Faxford is applying the skills he learned at BYU-Idaho.

“Just through coursework, we’ve had to open three different businesses,” said Faxford.

He will be working to build a magazine full of coupons that is expected to run across the country.

Meanwhile, graduating senior Emmilie Buchanan is starting a paid internship at Deseret News in Salt Lake.

“We have a good student media lab, where we produce a paper weekly. I started as a reporter, and I got to be editor-in-chief my last semester,” said Buchanan.

The Academic Discovery Center at BYU-Idaho has helped students like Foxford and Buchanan attend career fairs and workshops to build their resumes. The center guided them to take classes that apply to their work-related fields and helped set up internships.

“Fifty-five to 60 percent of our students that intern receive a job offer that result of that internship,” said Justin Hodges, BYU-Idaho career services manager.

And having professors who have recently came from the workforce.

“From the career perspective they can add a lot into the classroom. It helps the student understand what they’re learning in the classroom does apply to real life and their potential careers,” said Hodges.

The U.S. Department of Labor said 52 percent of college students who graduated last year are not working in jobs that require a college degree.