Here Comes The Class of 2005. Can It Pay the Rent?
By HUBERT B. HERRING
Published: March 6, 2005
At first, looking into that room is a jolt. One day, it's a reverberating mound of teenage chaos; the next, with its occupant off to college, it's a gaping, eerily silent hole - a bed, a desk, a stray sock or a T-shirt on the floor.
Then, inch by inch, the parents move in. First, it's the overflow books. Then it's a laptop, a yoga mat, a chair, a reading light. Four years pass, with occasional whirlwind visits by the absent scholar.
Then comes graduation, and guess who's home - to stay. Sixty percent of graduates head back to the nest, at least temporarily, according to MonsterTRAK, an online recruiter. The main reason, of course, is jobs, or lack thereof.
This year's graduates, though, face the best entry-level job market in more than three years, says Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the outplacement firm. It notes recent government data showing that the jobless rate for those with a bachelor's degree or higher had fallen to 2.4 percent. Business graduates should have the best prospects, it said, especially those in fields like finance and marketing. Hubert B. Herring
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