Boom Continues For Engineering and Business
(CPS)—This year’s job pro
spects? “Same song, second
verse,” is how one placement ex
pert described it.
But while graduates will find that
many aspects of the job market re
main constant from last year — the
hiring volume is up, and business
and the sciences are still the hotest
majors — job seekers will find two
major trends developing. For one,
the government, both local and
federal, is hiring significantly
fewer people. It’s a trend that may
have particular consequences for
liberal arts majors. Secondly,
openings for paraprofessional and
“service” type jobs are out
distancing professional openings in
many disciplines.
Yet for the moment, recruit
ment, according to a number of
sources, is intensifying, some say
to the levels of the “boom years” of
the sixties.
In December, a 25 percent in-
crease in recruitment was pro
jected by College Placement Coun
cil (CPC), which annually
monitors employment op
portunities in over 700 businesses.
Council officials predicted that
more companies would be sending
more recruiters who stay longer, a
continuation of last year’s trend,
when 40 to 50 percent more
students were interviewed than in
1977.
Preliminary reports indicate the
prediction was correct. “We’re
seeing a lot more offers,” said Ed
Fitzpatrick of Michigan State
University’s placement office, one
of the country’s largest. The
University of Califomia-Berkeley
reports a 20 percent increase this
year, as does William and Mary
College. At Lehigh University, of
fers are up 33 percent from last
year.
MSU’s office also predicted a
five to nine percent increase in
average starting salaries. Fitz
patrick says early reports shftW
“the dollar figures are higher.”
But because many companies no
longer release copies of actual job
offers, Fitzpatrick notes salary in
formation wouldn’t be available
until July.
The biggest increase in
recruiting, a projected 34 percent,
will come from companies looking
for engineers. In fact, 61 percent of
all recruitment offers on campus
will be for engineers. Many of the
SBPI has J-Seminar
The Southeastern Black Press
Institute (SBPI) sponsored a sum
mer journalism seminar for high
school students and recent
graduates.
Harry Amana, professor in the
School of Journalism and an SBPI
research associate was the direc
tor of the seminar. Cynthia
Ferebee, a language arts and
social studies teacher at Chewning
Junior High School in Durham was
the co-ordinator of the seminar.
Theresa Williams, co-editor of
Black Ink and James Parker
former photography editor for
Black Ink were counselors for the
seminar.
The 11 participating students
were selected from five
southeastern states which included
North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Virginia, and Maryland.
Each student had to submit a 1,500
word essay entitled, “Martin
Luther King Jr.; What He Would
Be Doing In My Community To
day.”
The students attended classes in
Reporting, Grammar, History of
the Black Press and Photography.
The students expressed a sincere
interest in learning the principals
of journalism.
Danita Knox, 16, from Paxville
South Carolina, stated, “The pro
gram was quite an experience and
I’m sure the things I’ve learned
here will help me improve my own
high school paper.”
The students were presented
with guest performers and lec
turers throughout the seminar.
Some of the performers and lec
turers included Chrystle Swain,
Pat Bryant, Marinda McPherson,
BernaDine Ward and Murray
DePillars. The students also
visited several newspaper offices
in the area.
During the fifth and final week of
the program, the students had five-
day internships in Greensboro and
Winston-Salem. In Greensboro, six
of the students worked at the
Carolina Peacemaker and The
Greensboro Daily News and
Record.
In Winston-Salem, the remaining
five students and counselor James
Parker worked at the
Winston-Salem Chronicle and the
Winston-Salem Joumel.
Kenny Conyers, a recent
graduate from Wake Forest, N.C.
stated, “The internship was the one
thing I looked forward to. I think
everyone learned something from
it and still utilize the knowledge of
the Black Press in a beneficial
manner.”
The seminar was highlighted by
a graduation ceremony on August 7
in Upendo Lounge.
jobs will be in energy-related
helds, and will command the
highest average starting salaries.
New petroleum engineers will get
$1,645 a month, the highest pay for
any specialty.
Students in science, math, and
other “technical” fields can expect
19 percent more job offers, CPC
says, and business majors can ex
pect 11 percent more job openings.
Students in such fields as accoun
ting, aerospace, automotive, bank
ing, chemicals, electronics, mer
chandising, and metals will also
graduate into a wider job market.
But while CPC predicted a five
percent increase in job offers for
“non-technical” fields — which in
clude most hberal arts disciplines
— the drop-off in government hir
ing will probably cause a six per
cent decline in the number of jobs
available in those areas. The
federal government is expected to
hire 15 percent fewer graduates
this year, CPC says. That would br
ing government hiring to its lowest
levels since the 1950’s.
The decline stems from Presi
dent Carter’s mandate allowing
agencies to fill only one of two
vacancies, and recently-enacted
Civil Service regulations requiring
a two percent reduction of federal
civilian jobs.
Meanwhile, state and local
governments forecast a 12 percent
decline, which many attribute to
cost-cutting measures like Califor
nia’s Proposition 13.
The effects are already becom
ing apparent. Fitzpatrick has
noticed “less interest in college
candidates” from governmental
agencies. Because governmental
agencies are a prime employer of
liberal arts majors, more of these
students are expected to turn to the
private sector for jobs, creating a
competition that is projected to
force many into jobs that don’t re
quire a college degree.
But liberal arts majors aren’t the
only ones who may end up with jobs
they’re overqualified for. Depart
ment of Labor statistics suggest
that in many professions,
“assistant-type” jobs are increas
ingly in demand.
The field of education, for exam
ple, is still widely regarded as
overcrowded, because of a glut of
education majors in the early
seventies, and the decline in the
number of elementary and high-
school students. But teacher’s
aides are in high demand, with
160.000 openings by 1985 an
ticipated by the Labor Depart
ment.
Even with an excess of lawyers
(this year more than 30,000 law
graduates will compete for only
21.000 jobs), para-legals are an
“emerging profession,” according
to Aaron Crasner, director of the
Institute for Paralegal Training in
Philadelphia. A growing number of
institutions are starting paralegal
training in face of the demand.
Similarly, while the U.S. Depart
ment of Health, Education and
Welfare is taking steps to restrict
the nulhber of medical students to
combat an “oversupply” of doc
tors, a market is emerging for
para-medics, such as nurse practi
tioners and physicians’ assistants.
Nurse practitioners, in particular,
are often having an easier time of
getting a job than doctors since
they need not work under a doc
tor’s supervision, and can find posi
tions in areas hard-pressed for doc
tors.
Hope for sickle cell victims
By JAMES D. MeJUNKINS
(Provided by NSF,
(^rk College and
Voice News Network)
An experimental machine which
treats patients’ blood with a
poisonous chemical might give ad
ded life to sickle cell anemia vic
tims.
Three of the new machines,
which function like a kidney
dialysis device, are being purchas
ed by the federal government to be
allocated to Ohio State University,
the University of Kansas and the
University of Washington. Four
teen to 16 patients will be tested
during the next two years.
Sickle cell anemia is a hereditary
blood disease which is estimated to
afflict as many as 50 million peo
ple, most of them Black. It kills
half of its victims before they reach
age 20. Sickle cell traits are usually
found in one in every 10 Black
Americans.
The name sickle cell is given to
describe the crescent or sickle
shaped blood cells. Normally
healthy red blood cells are shaped
like a doughnut. The abnormal
shaped cells lose their ability to
move through body capilaries and
thus cut off oxygen supplies.
The new machine was developed
at the University of Washington.
Researchers have been testing
sheep and have found “absolutely
no side effects.”
In using the machine a patient’s
blood would be pumped through the
machine and dosed with the
chemical sodium cyanate before
being returned to the body. Resear
chers hope that the chemical will
prevent the cells from “sickling.”
Because the chemical is toxic
almost all of it must be removed
before being returned to the body.
If the treatment works a patient
should be able to undergo treat
ment once every two weeks in a six
hour session. The machine is ex
pected to cost around $6,200.
(Preparation of this article was
made possible by a grant from
NSF. The views of this article are
those of the author and do not
represent those of NSF.