Growing Squeeze

Ph.D.'s are not the only folks who have to do some calculating about career plans. Continuing a trend that began about ten years ago, college graduates will face fierce competition through the mid-1980's for jobs in fields ranging from anthropology and labor relations to sociology and political science.

According to a study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, one out of every four students with bachelor's degrees will have to settle for a job that generally has not required a college education. In its Occupational Outlook for College Graduates, the bureau predicts that between 1976 and 1985, some 10.4 million people with undergraduate degrees will enter the job market with only 7.7 million finding the sorts of jobs that traditionally demand those degrees. The remaining 2.7 million will have to take jobs for which they are overeducated or go unemployed.

The terrain is rockiest in fields that are increasingly popular but are not expanding significantly, like journalism, and those that depend heavily on government funds, like oceanography. But the prospects are good to excellent in many careers. Health service administrators, engineers, registered nurses, accountants, bank officers, Catholic priests, computer programmers and systems analysts are among those expected to be in demand in the next decade. The BLS notes that while a bachelor's degree ensures a good chance at a job, a graduate degree in any of these fields would be an especially marketable asset.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.