Using the database at the Oregon State Employment Office, Haley Bremer joins others in the search for the ever-elusive job.
As a veteran of the ups and downs of the Eugene job market, Honi Newhouse never expected to find a job easily.
But a month after graduating from the University, she is still without work, and attracting the attention of employers has been even more difficult than she expected.
“I’ll call back three or four times and get no response,” she said. “It’s been just kind of frustrating, generally.”
Her friends and roommates are also having trouble finding jobs this summer, she added. And they are not the only ones.
With recent layoffs at two local manufacturing plants and a down-turning economy, the job market right now is “considerably worse than last year,” said Gloria Mulligan, the job placement supervisor at the Eugene office of the Oregon Employment Department.
Last Tuesday, the computer-chip manufacturer Hynix, formerly known as Hyundai, announced it would lay off 600 workers at its Eugene plant just six weeks after Weyerhaeuser Co. laid off 140 workers when it closed a Springfield manufacturing plant.
Other local employers are eliminating positions as well, Mulligan said. And the layoffs, as well as an increased number of students seeking work, have pushed the unemployment rate in Lane County up to 6 percent in June, 1.3 percent higher than the national average.
With so many people looking for jobs, students often have a harder time than other people seeking employment because they have less work experience, Mulligan said.
But there are still jobs out there, she said, especially if students are willing to take a lower pay rate than they might like.
Right now, she said, most of the jobs listed with the employment department database that require little experience pay minimum wage.
Mulligan advises those who come in looking for work to attend one of the employment office’s workshops on how to get a job or create a resume.
Resume writing, in particular, is an important skill in obtaining a job, she added.
“If you turn a resume in and it doesn’t get an employer’s attention,” she said, “you’re not going to get an interview.”
While it’s probably not what most students in the midst of employment woes want to hear right now, their troubles probably could have been avoided if they had made job hunting a priority earlier, said Joyce May, who manages the University Career Center’s online job database.
As early as January, May said, she began posting summer job openings online. And at one time, there were about 2,700 positions open. Based on feedback she has received from employers, however, she said few students responded to those postings.
“We have resources available,” she said. “But I don’t think they were being utilized.”
Students who are still looking do have options, she added. Right now, she said, the jobs posted on the Career Center Web site include openings for firefighters and members of the Northwest Youth Corps, as well as various retail, food service and temporary positions.
“There’s still jobs available,” she said.