With the unemployment rate for 20- to 24-year-olds at 16%, many college and graduate-school graduates are starting their own businesses. The National Association of Colleges and Employers published a recent report citing that employers plan to hire 7% fewer graduates from the class of 2010 than they hired from the class of 2009. This is after hiring already dropped 22% in 2009 from that of 2008. According to the article below, the launching of new enterprises among young people is likely to continue. “Given the state of the economy, and the state of the job market, many young people are getting the push they needed to become entrepreneurs,” says Bo Fishback, vice president of entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes entrepreneurs. “It’s a lot easier to decide to launch your own company when there aren’t a lot of jobs out there.”
The article below cites that “The annual average percentage of all job seekers starting their own businesses increased to 9% through the third quarter of 2009, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas, a global outplacement consultancy. That’s compared with 5% at the end of 2008.†Current college students and graduates interested in starting their own business are advised to turn to others for help. If you’re thinking about starting your own company, take advantage of all the resources available to you. Many campuses offer programs or cash incentives from entrepreneurship competitions to help budding business owners. In the new edition of LifeBound’s book, Majoring in the Rest of Your Life, students can glean advice from other graduates and professionals–some who are successful entrepreneurs and other career builders who know what it takes to succeed in the global economy. The new edition is being released in January of 2010. If you’d like to reserve a copy of the book and have it mailed to you upon publication, please call toll free 1.877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com.
ARTICLE:
Wall Street Journal
DECEMBER 22, 2009
With Scant Jobs, Grads Make Their Own
By TODDI GUTNER
Andrew Levine knew he wouldn’t find a job in investment banking when he graduated with an M.B.A. from the University of Miami in 2008. Wall Street was in the midst of a financial collapse. So instead the 24-year-old focused his efforts on launching a start-up. “I figured that starting my own company was the best use of my time while I waited for the market to thaw,” says Mr. Levine.
Faced with an unemployment rate of 16% for 20- to 24-year-olds, a growing number of recent college and grad-school graduates are launching their own companies, according to anecdotal evidence from colleges, universities and entrepreneurship programs around the U.S.
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