Job Market

When US Airways Group Inc. lays off 11,000 employees in the coming weeks, the out-of-work pilots, flight attendants and mechanics will be cast into a job market suffering from a slowing economy. Compounding the problem, especially for pilots, is that not only are most of the other airlines having similar difficulties, but the workers' skills are so specialized that it will be hard for them to find other jobs for which they are qualified. "There will be thousands of pilots trying to start new careers over this," said Roy Freundlich, a pilot and spokesman for the US Airways unit of the Air Line Pilots Association.

Other than majors in engineering, computer science and health care, graduates this year may feel like a catastrophe has struck the job market.How catastrophic? A federal recruiter who had signed up to pick graduates at the University of Texas-Austin called Barbara Euresti, the university's liberal arts placement center director, to announce that the recruiting trip was canceled.It seems that his department has been eliminated and he asked if Ms. Euresti could help him find a job.If you have friends graduating this year, a great gift is the encouragement to anticipate tricky interview questions.

The job picture for college graduates is likely to improve this year for the first time since 2001, but competition for work remains fierce because of a tight employment market. Companies said they will hire almost 13 percent more graduates in 2004, compared with last spring, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers in Bethlehem, Pa. It marks the first time in three years that employers said they would increase hiring. Companies predicted a 3.6 percent decline in hiring last year and a 20 percent decline in 2002, according to the annual survey.

It will be a summer of unemployed anxiety, menial jobs or expensive escapes for most of the approximately 19,000 seniors who are graduating from Maryland colleges this month.Facing what many describe as the worst job market for new college graduates in the past generation, many newly minted baccalaureates are hard pressed to land one of the shrinking number of career-track jobs available this year.Because of the job shortage, many graduates are settling for clerical or part-time work, or escaping the likelihood of rejection by traveling or enrolling in graduate school.

Two years after the country spiraled into a severe recession, Marylanders' job prospects are still getting worse. The state's unemployment rate rose to 7.4 percent last month from 7.3 percent in October, the U.S. Department of Labor estimated Friday. That adds up to nearly 220,000 residents actively looking for work, twice as many as there were at the end of 2007. The situation seemed to be stabilizing in the summer, when the unemployment rate stopped rising, but the pause was only temporary.

Mark Louderback of White Marsh is among the many workers frustrated by the way the economy's downturn has leached so many opportunities out of today's job market. Louderback, 34, and a father of three, specializes in managing big projects, such as the installation of new computer systems. After leaving a full-time job in 1999, he spent two years as a contract worker, moving from firm to firm as companies rolled out new computer systems. His skills were in demand. But five months ago, Louderback was part of a group of 35 who unexpectedly lost their jobs.

David Barnes is losing hope. After sending out resumes, applying for work and submitting online job applications, Barnes has gotten few bites and no job offers. "I've gotten less and less picky as I've looked," said a frustrated Barnes, 17, who estimated he has put more than 25 hours into his job search. "No one replies to what I send out." Barnes was in the top 5 percent of his graduating class last month at Long Reach High School in Columbia and will attend George Washington University in the fall.

Three years ago, Batching Systems owner Don Wooldridge was agonizing over how many of his 72 employees would have to be laid off as orders for the company's patented sorting and counting machines dried up. Yesterday, he was worrying over how he was going to find enough people to fill all of the positions he has open. The Prince Frederick company's reversal after three years of pain is indicative of how Maryland's job market continues to rebound from recession even as job growth in the rest of the nation appears to have stalled.

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - After the globe hopping. After the rush of competition. After the cheering has stopped. What happens to the men and women who make up the U.S. Olympic team? "You put your life on hold to pursue a dream," says hockey player A.J. Mleczko, 29. "All of my peers have at least five years of post-college experience. I don't know if what I'm doing qualifies me for anything." And that's from a woman with a gold medal from the 1998 Winter Games, the likelihood of another one next month and a degree in U.S. history from Harvard University.

Katie Blaha leaves her job in Hunt Valley at 5 p.m. every day to return to a house in Catonsville she shares with roommates who are a good bit older than her and ask a lot of personal questions. Even though she's got solid employment and has weathered the worst of the economic downturn, Blaha, like so many in her generation, is back living with her parents. "I want to save money, so I'm not just getting by," said the 22-year-old who graduated from Washington College in 2009, and spent nearly a year working internships — paid and unpaid — before she could put her degree to use in a marketing firm.