When Ed Wrenn pursued a bachelor’s degree in computer information
systems at Florida A&M University, the young Boston-area native
kept an unwavering watch on the job market. During his time at FAMU,
Wrenn estimates that he had contact with nearly one hundred potential
employers about jobs after college. By fall 1997, his last semester at
FAMU. Wrenn had five job offers to consider.
“It’s an employee’s dream. There’s so many opportunities Out there,” he says.
Last March, the twenty-four-year-old began working as a developer
of Web-based news applications at the Lockheed Martin Corporation in
Gaithersburg, Maryland. Wrenn says he is pleased with his new job
because it allows him to use programming skills he honed while at FAMU.
He says the surging U.S. economy has many employers in hot pursuit of
talented college graduates.
“I was real selective about the companies I talked to. It’s difficult to not get a job these days.”
Wrenn’s story is not an Uncommon one among the thousands of college
graduates who are securing jobs in today’s dynamic economy. For the
past few years, plummeting unemployment rates have meant the nation’s
employers have expanded their companies with an abundance of new hires.
That’s good news for college students who at the beginning of the
decade faced uncertain job prospects in a recession-plagued national
economy.
Today’s college graduates now have more opportunities than ever
before, according to college counselors, employers, and public
officials. That also holds true for graduates of color — especially
those graduating with engineering, science, technology, business, and
management-related degrees.
“If you listen closely, the sound you hear across this country is
the sound of opportunity knocking. This is truly an opportunity economy
Our economy is strong. It is solid. And it continues to soar,” Alexis
Herman, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, proclaimed last
month while announcing May’s employment statistics.
