Bread Lines, Welfare or Luck?

For many students, "recession," "unemployment," "cutbacks" and "lay-offs" may be only words they read in the newspapers. But as students search for summer jobs, newspaper stories about the declining economy become more real. The unemployment rate has jumped almost four percentage points since last spring and Harvard students, like students everywhere, are feeling the squeeze.

A few students will simply discover that at the firms where they apply for work the catch-word is firing, not hiring. Others will feel the effect of the recession less directly. The Massachusetts student who reapplies for his or her summer lifeguard job will be told that seasonal job applications are now channelled through the Division of Employment Security, which gives preference to veterans, minorities, and unemployed heads of households. The student will lose out.

Perhaps trying closer to home, the student will find that the Student Employment Office (SEO) is not even holding summer job signups for Buildings and Grounds jobs. There will be only "zero to ten" jobs with B&G this summer, rather than last year's 65, Charles O. Honnet, SEO's assistant director said this week.

The reason for the drop is that there will be fewer vacationing B&G workers for students to replace this summer. In order to save money B&G workers were encouraged to take their vacations during the Christmas recess when some buildings were closed to save energy, William A. Lee, B&G personnel administrator said this week.

Even when the summer-job hunter is not competing with fulltime workers, landing a job will not be easy. Betsey Remage, OGCP health careers counselor, said that inflation and fewer Federal and foundation grants to hospitals and universities for scientific research means that "there is less and less fat for special programs" for students.

But, job were also "very tight" last summer, Remage added, so that while today's market is significantly worse than five years ago the only difference between this year and last may be that more students are now interested in tracking down jobs that pay. And the number of these jobs has certainly not increased.

With government jobs the statements just as tough.

Charles R. Ruemelin, OGCP government careers counselor, this week described a year-to-year shrinkage in the public sector job market. But Ruemelin can't talk specifies yet because when money is scarce governmental offices delay for as long as possible making decisions about reductions of cuts in internship programs. If Ruemelin calls now to find out about a program, he is told that the program has no coordinator because, of a hiring freeze, and that the budget for the program is not yet set.

Ruemelin knows that if there are no internship coordinators, there may not be anyone to lobby for internship program funds. But he still cannot get definite answers about programs' futures because. "It's a very unpopular thing for someone to say we won't do a program."

Ruemelin said he thinks administrators "let programs hang" as long as possible, so that students will look for jobs elsewhere and remove the pressure on the government offices to hire them. Come June 15, programs may hire a few of the people who have not found other work. Through this delaying tactic, "some people will still have jobs, and the agency can say they've still had a program." Ruemelin concluded. Nonetheless, many students will have been left out.

Internship programs designed for only minority students are at least as scarce as jobs in health and government. OGCP counselor William D. Wallace has a folder tucked away behind his desk filled with old brochures of programs in the health field which no longer exist.

Applications to minority programs which will run this year have soared. More than twice as many students as last year applied to work in business firms through the NAACP's Positive Program, Charlotte M. Nelson, the program's director of employment services, said last month. But so far the program has found only half as many spots for applicants as last year because employers cannot afford to pay interns' salaries.

Applications to the Summer School's health careers program for minority and disadvantaged students, have also doubled this year, even though students will no longer be getting the stipends they formerly received. Wallace, the coordinator of that program, said more students may be applying to the program this year because it guarantees them something to do this summer if they don't get a job.

But Wallace emphasized that summer jobs are not only a minority problem, "Jobs for minorities and women have always been a problem, because these groups did not have as much access," but now, he said, "it's become a problem for everyone."

If earlier and more numerous inquiries at Harvard's employment services this year are good indications of student concern. Wallace is right. Remage also reports that more people than last year visited the OGCP as early as semester break in search of a summer job. Honnet, too, noticed that students came in earlier this year to inquire about summer employment.

Ruemelin said there is a "noticeable increase" in the number of students who asked about the Federal Summer Civil Service test this year. For many, a civil service rating serves as a "back-up." The student thinks, perhaps optimistically, that it will land him a job as a government clerk, if he cannot find anything better by June. For others, the rating is a prerequisite for a government internship program, and the competition for these jobs can be stiff. After Ruemelin ran a notice in the OGCP newsletter advertising 15 pre-law internships in Washington 15 to 20 people came into the OGCP every day for a week for more information--a number "up noticeably" from last year.

For many students, particularly those on financial aid it is not only getting a job that's important--the jib must also pay more than last year. In order to keep up with inflationary costs the Ivy Group decided last fall to raise the figures for financial and students' expected summer earnings by $100 for each class. While during the last five years for example freshmen on financial aid were expected to clear $500 with their summer earnings, this summer they will have to clear $600.

Seamus P. Malin '62, Harvard director of financial aid said that in previous years many students earnings exceeded Financial Aid guidelines, so that it won't be "too hard" for students to meet the raised levels. The Radcliffe Financial Aid Office is responding to the economic squeeze by trying to increase the number of students on the summer work-study program, and raising the limit it imposes on work-study students' summer earnings, according to Anita D. Howard, Radcliffe assistant director of financial aid.

Sylvia J. Simmons, Radcliffe director of financial aid, said this week that the summer work-study program is one of our most important things because of the scarcity of jobs.

People in the financial aid office worry about the effect of the deteriorating economy on the student job market. But students hunting for jobs will discover other reasons for the fierce job competition.

Applications to the Summer School Health Careers Program may be up this year simply because of increased interest on the part of minority students in the health field, Wallace said last month.

According to Ruemelin, the OGCP's effort during the past two years to publicize job opportunities has intensified the competition. For example, OGCP's Government Internship Guide makes it easier for each one of the 2000 people who has picked it up to apply for internships, but if it's easier for one person, it's also easier for everyone else with a copy of the guide.

The OGCP counselors tell students they can escape this competition by being more imaginative and aggressive in their search for jobs. "Most jobs are not perfectly designed and if they are, you don't fit these description," OGCP director Francis D. Fisher '47 explained last month. Fisher's solution: get employers to think how they can use your unique assets, and they'll hire you even if there was no formal "job opening."

Fisher's scenario is overly optimistic. All too often students seeking internships will be told that there's lots of work for them to do, but no money to pay them to do it. It is then up to the student to find an alternate source of funding--most likely one of Harvard's grant programs.

This spring the Institute of Politics, received 82 applications--27 more than last year--for grants to support summer thesis research. Nora F. Littlefield, the Institute's student programs assistant said last month a casual glance at the applications shows that more people plan to use their awards this summer to support positions employers cannot find funding for rather than thesis research.

Two weeks after the Institute of Politics applications were due, the Institute announced a new grant program for government interships so that thesis writers and job hunters won't have to compete for funds in the future. Janet Fraser assistant director of the Institute, would not say how much money will be given out under the new program but she said the original summer award program will grant a "comparable" amount of money as last year, with the addition of the new program, the Institute will award more money to students than last year.

This year's applicants for Education for Action (F4A) grants also have as good a chance to be awarded a grant as last year. Director W. Shepherd Bliss said this week that F4A will probably have an "unusually high" number of grant applications, and will give out more money than last year in order to meet the increased demand. The extra money will come from F4A's reserve funds, since "this is a bad year for raising money."

Other grant programs are also having a bad year raising money. Both the Center for European Studies and the Center for International Affairs partially support their respective award programs with three-year Ford Foundation grants, which decrease each year. According to Sally Cox, administrative officer for the CFIA, the CFIA will award as much as $1500 more than last year's $6000, though the CFIA may have to dip into its unrestricted endowment funds in order to make up for the annually reduced foundation money.

About 40 people applied for CFIA grants this year, compared to approximately 05 last year. Ross Terrill, associate professor of Government and the CFIA'a advisor for student programs said. Applications to the Center for European Studies have not climbed this year, according to the Center's administrator Abigail Collins but $4300 less than last year's $20,000 will be awarded to applicants. But Collins said that applicants now asks for more money than they once did, because of the rising cost of spending a summer in Europe. "We're faced by smaller pots and by people asing for more money--it's a two-way squeeze," she said.

No matter how tough the squeeze, Harvard's job counselors say Harvard students will pull though. At last month's OGCP job hunting clinic, Fisher gave lots of advice. "Try to get yourself into as many positions as you can where you are in conversation with people who have the power to hire you," he said, adding, "If you know someone with energy and time you can always turn knowing any person into knowing someone else. No matter how tough the labor market, you do this enough times, in enough situations..." Fisher said.

Honnet is more down-to-earth. Noting that getting a job is often just a matter of being in the right place at the right time, Honnet said. "Eventually people will end up with jobs--it's only question of how long it takes." He added that students may have to settle for more manual jobs than in past summers, or work a number of part-time jobs. Like Ruemelin, Honnet advised that students create their own jobs like house-painting and gardening, since, he said such work will always be available to the enterprising student.

"The prophecy is always of doom; this year just looks worse," Honnet said. Only at the end of the summer will students know if Honnet's assessment is right.

OGCP Counselor Ruemelin: A shrinking summer job market poses problems for students.