University of Oklahoma - Sooner Yearbook (Norman, OK)

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t used to be a kid went to high school, got a part-time job, bought a class ring, went to college, shed the ring and emerged in a blue serge suit ready to tackle any ex- ecutive position. lt used to be that way. Really. And then it seemed that every female wanted to be a second grade school teacher and every male was a business major which caused a tiny but noticeable decrease in the jobs available. And then something even a bit stranger happened--someone discovered that women could be doctors and lawyers and petroleum engineers and that they could be pretty good at it and that caused a very, very noticeable decrease in the jobs available. Go to college-get a job At one time it was almost the Great American Cliche-- You have to have a college education to get a good job. However, while high school counselors and television commercials were drilling this message in the public's brains, two-year technical schools were becoming in- creasingly efficient in turning out highly-skilled job can- didates. These graduates were gobbling up available jobs faster than the positions were opening while the college students still had two years of education left. Still the United States was prosperous and the problem wasn't yet that serious. And then the Vietnam war ended which introduced two more considerations that could not be ignored: the returning veterans and the beginning of an economic recession. More people needed jobs and fewer employers were willing to risk the financial capital for on- the-job training. Enrollment up-jobs down Now, with college enrollment increasing and the economic situation worsening, jobs for college grads joined the ever-increasing list of disappearing commodities in the Shortage Seventies. The unemployment rate peaked during October of this year at a record 5.4 per cent and statisticians predict it will rise before returning to normal. How would this affect those in college now? The greatest threat was to education majors. The unemployment rate coupled with the decreasing population explained why there were now four times as many people enrolled in education in major universities than there were prospective students to teach. Grade schools were merging together because of decreasing enrollment further alleviating the need for more teachers. Strict tenure laws in Oklahoma hurt the new teachers because of limited access to new openings. Another overly-saturated field was journalism. After gaining glamor through high school yearbooks and newspapers, the mass media received public exposure in the form of almost hero-worship following its recent un- veiling of government secrets. The OU School of Jour- nalism enrollment increased 32.5 per cent in the past three years while jobs with the media decreased almost con- currently. With more newspapers subscribing to wire services and others selling out to giant newspaper chains, the journalism major might have limited success in securing rewarding employment. New jobs for teachers Perhaps the answer lies not in waiting for things to get better, but in a new concept of job organization. Com- panies such as Westinghouse and General Electric are exploring the idea of hiring teachers to instruct employees on the job thus helping the teacher overflow. Specialty employment will help the journalism major. Positions such as editing agriculture material are virtually untouched by many who are qualified. Existing job areas must be explored to find new and useful types of employment to account for the increase of productive people flooding the market. If these measures are not acted upon quickly, the situation for those in college appears very grim indeed. Q

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Norman. . . a nice place place to hide from the real world, but are there enough jobs upon graduation?

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