Career services foresees another tight job market

Though job market statistics for the Class of 2003 will not be available until after the senior checkout survey in May, job searches for graduating students will likely be competitive, as last year's were, according to the Office of Career Services.

"The job market in some industries has been a bit rocky for a few years, making the job search more competitive or last longer than several years ago," Rebecca Ross, associate director of Career Services said in an e-mail.

"Because we do not have data from students yet, I can say that there does not appear to be an appreciable difference between this year and last," said Ross.

Last year, 99.2 percent of the Class of 2002 responded to the Career Plans Survey. Of the class, approximately 63 percent were pursuing full-time employment and 27 percent were planning further education at the time the survey was taken.

The remaining 10 percent were taking part in other endeavors, such as travel, military service and professional sports. Of those employed, 2002's mean salary was $49,082, which was a 3.3 percent decrease from the $50,731 mean salary of 2001. Negating a trend of decreasing mean salaries, 2001's mean salary was actually an 11.7 percent increase from 2000's average salary of $45,376, according to the survey.

The percentage of those going to graduate or professional school was 23.44 percent, including 5.5 percent who went to medical school and 4.5 percent who pursued an education in law school. The percentage of students seeking to go to graduate school was 2.02 percent, while 1.38 percent sought to attend post-baccalaureate programs, according to the survey.

Two females and eight males made up the 0.92 percent that pursued positions in the military. Eleven males constituted the 1.01 percent who planned on working in the field of professional sports.

Of the salary averages of students in specific industries, those in the manufacturing industry had the highest mean average of $60,750 while those in the nonprofit industries earned the lowest average of $29, 575.

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While the Ivies were among the more popular graduate schools attended by Princeton graduates in 2002, Stanford University, the University of Virginia and Oxford University were among the top 10.

Some students take the path less traveled in finding postgraduate jobs. University programs, such as Princeton in Asia, Princeton Project 55, and Princeton in Africa afforded some seniors the opportunity to take and receive funding for post-graduation internships and fellowships.

There was an 11.1 percent increase in the number of students pursuing yearlong internships.

Ross remains positive about job prospects for this year's seniors.

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"I think many organizations and prognosticators about the job market continue to be optimistic," she wrote. "[M]ost believe [the job market] will not get worse but rather remain stable or improve slightly."