Maria Knox traveled halfway around the world from her native Bulgaria to earn degrees at Southern Adventist University and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
But when she began looking for a job, the 29-year-old actuary found employment just a few hundred yards from her downtown home at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. Mrs. Knox was among the three dozen interns hired each year by Tennessee’s biggest health insurer and one who ultimately was hired for what she hopes is a longtime career at the Chattanooga company.
“This mixes my interest in both business and math and I think there is a lot of opportunity here,” the BlueCross actuarial analyst said.
Such opportunities for many recent college graduates have been rare. With unemployment at or near the highest levels in three decades across Tennessee and Georgia, employers are hiring fewer of those earning college diplomas this spring.
But for those like Mrs. Knox with math skills or those going to medically-related employers like those at BlueCross, job prospects have held up reasonably well.
“Graduates in nursing or pharmacy pretty much have their pick of jobs, and students who do well in most engineering and accounting fields are still finding jobs,” said Russ Coughenour, director of career services at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. “The real challenge this year is for graduates in other programs who are not at the top of their class or don’t have internships or other experience.”
Coming out of the worst economic and market slump in a generation, the U.S. economy has shown positive growth in output every quarter since last summer and the Dow Jones Industrial Averages is up by more than 70 percent from the low point reached in March 2009.
But while stocks and profits are rebounding, employment in metropolitan Chattanooga fell by 3,700 jobs, or 1.7 percent, from March 2009 to March 2010, according to data released last week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Over the past three years, the 6-county Chattanooga area has shed 16,700 jobs, primarily in manufacturing, construction and financial services.
healthy job prospects
“Health care has been the one area that has continued to grow through this recession, but there have been some real structural changes through this economic downturn and many businesses are learning to adapt with fewer workers,” said Bill Fox, director for the Center for Business and Economic Research in Knoxville. “For college graduates in most other fields, it’s still a very tough job market.”
Many of Chattanooga’s biggest employers are hiring college graduates this spring, however. In the health care arena, there are hundreds of nursing and other medical specialist jobs posted at BlueCross, Erlanger Medical Center, Memorial Hospital and Cigna Healthcare.
“We’ve been very fortunate from a business perspective that we’ve been able to continue hiring at about the same rate as the previous year,” said Greg Gentry, human service manger at Erlanger, which now has just over 100 jobs openings. “This year we anticipate hiring between 50 and 70 college graduates.”
At Memorial Hospital, Recruitment and Retention Manager Cynthia C. Williams said the hospital continues to hire both nursing graduates.
“The market is competitive,” she said. “We begin establishing relationships with student nurses their freshman year. In doing so, some get an opportunity to work with us as Nurse Techs throughout their nursing program.”
powerful employer
The Tennessee Valley Authority, one of the largest employers in Chattanooga, is looking for graduating talent in the engineering, computer science, finance, accounting and economics, among other fields, TVA spokesman Jim Allen said. TVA attended job fairs this spring at 20 four-year schools across the Valley, including UTC.
Mr. Allen said TVA is also looking to fill at least 250 internships this summer.
Top jobs for college grads* Nurses* Pharmacists* Accountants, actuaries* Logistics* Electrical and mechanical engineersSource: University of Tennessee
Plans for building a wave of nuclear reactors could create a need for 12,000 to 21,000 new workers ranging from specially trained maintenance crews to nuclear physicists and engineers. The need for labor is compounded since more than a third of the country’s existing nuclear workers will be eligible for retirement in four years, according to the Southern Co., which is planning to build two new reactors at its Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, Ga.
We’re putting together work force development pipelines,” said Andrew Bouldin, who helps coordinate recruiting for Southern Co.’s nuclear subsidiary.
Mr. Coughenour said employers are coming back to campus to gain more student contacts and future candidates.
“This time a year ago there was no energy in the market by employers,” he said. “There still isn’t as much hiring activity as we would like, but there are certainly more hopeful signs.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Continue reading by following these links to related stories:
Article: Degree in hand, but job still elusive