Jill Wilbert has a guaranteed job at her family’s bank when she graduates in December.The management senior knows she’s lucky because the job hunt is on for students about to step into today’s weakening economy.”It’s scary to find a job right now,” Wilbert said.Her concerns aren’t unfounded.”If you are a senior, the last thing you want when you graduate is to be going out into a market in which jobs are vanishing,” said Loren Scott, professor emeritus in the University’s Economics Department.President Bush signed the $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan Oct. 3 — right after the U.S. House passed the bill in a 263-171 vote. The plan is supposed to help the money flow between credit markets and consumers.Louisiana’s economy may be better off than some states’ economies, but it didn’t completely dodge the recession bullet.A General Motors plant in Shreveport plans to drop an entire shift — nearly 800 layoffs.State unemployment rates jumped this year from 4 percent to 4.7 percent from July to August, according to the Louisiana     Occupational Information System — a one percent increase from August 2007.Scott said the oil industry in Houma and Lafayette is keeping those sectors “rockin-n-rollin.”Because Baton Rouge’s economy is only about 3 percent durable goods — products like cars, televisions and computers — Scott said the city shouldn’t be hit hard.But with companies across the country consolidating jobs, Scott says the rescue package will help the prospects of keeping some jobs around.”You’re still going to be going into a market where jobs are disappearing,” Scott said. “But at least they’re not going to be disappearing at the depth and the rate that they would be if you had not passed this bailout bill.”But as some jobs vanish, one field expected to stay hot is the health care industry.”It’s going to be pretty much immune to this and grow no matter what because the [baby] boomers are starting to age,” Scott said.Scott said underclassmen about to hit the job trail may still feel the recession’s heat when looking for part-time jobs. He said a recession could take a toll on the number of available part-time jobs and their wage rates.Wilbert expects to walk down a tough road if she decides to search for a bank management job outside of the family business.”I am fully aware that it is going to be hard to find an adequate job that has the right income and is located in the right area,” Wilbert said.Scott hopes history will repeat itself as far as the nature of the recession goes.”Recessions have gotten shorter and shallower, not deeper and longer,” Scott said. “So if we’re very lucky, that’ll be the nature of this one.”He called it a “peculiar” recession spurred by a credit squeeze — something the country hasn’t experienced in a while. Banks are taking a closer look at the loans they lend, and student loans are no exception.There has been some impact on the student loan industry, but nothing that will immediately impact University students, said Mary Parker, executive director of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and Student Aid.Parker said students who take out loans under the Federal Family Education Loan Program have nothing to worry about. The federal government sets FFELP loan interest rates before the fiscal year starts, and they cannot change.But Parker said private loans — those based on student credit — are vulnerable to strain if the economy suffers a long-term recession and interest rates rise.Parker said the office plans to keep a watchful eye on their lenders during the next few months.
—-Contact Natalie Messina at [email protected]