We’re not Generation Y. We’re not the Information Generation either. We’re not even Generation OMG, as The New York Times writer Kate Zernike so cleverly coined.We’re Generation OMFG — because classmates, we’re effed.We’re thousands of dollars in debt from student loans — and bar tabs.Six months after we toss our hats we’ll be using them to collect spare change on street corners so we can pay back our loans in time.Twenty-two percent fewer college graduates will be hired this year compared to last year, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Sixty-seven percent of employers said they have altered their hiring plans for the class of 2009 by lowering and even eliminating spring hiring. And 21 percent are offering less internship opportunities.The unemployment rate as a whole was 8.1 percent in February, which is nearly double what it was a year ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.And at the rate it’s going, May won’t be much prettier — which means “Pomp and Circumstance” won’t be music to our ears.Although Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, claimed the recession will be done by the end of the year, that doesn’t mean there’s a light at the end of the tunnel — because when the current Fed chair decides to do the first interview in the history of Fed chairs, you know it’s bad.The recession, or rather the Great Recession, is the worst to hit the U.S. since the early 1980s.It lasted from July 1981 to November 1982, and skyrocketed the unemployment rate from 7.2 percent to 10.8 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.And the wages of those who graduated during this recession didn’t return to pre-recession levels for at least 10 years.So in today’s terms, that means we college graduates will probably be flipping burgers at the local Sonic or pumping gas at the neighborhood filling station until the lag ends.Not that there’s any shame in that.But it’s kind of a downer when you worked your butt off for four years, sleeping on cots every other night in the design building, or burning your skin off every day in the chemistry lab,  or even pulling all-nighters just to earn that little piece of paper.And now that little piece of paper is pretty much worthless, unless your degree happens to be in one of select few recession-proof fields.Getting a job in the fields of education, energy, environment, financial services, government, health care, international business, law enforcement, technology and the funeral home business are our safest bets for moving back to that not so sweet home and rooming with the ‘rents.So basically, if you’re not willing to teach snot-nosed kids, empty bed pans or embalm corpses, you’re plumb out of luck.But don’t sell your bodies or commit suicide quite yet.The January 2009 unemployment rate for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher was 3.8 percent while the rate for those with less than a high-school diploma was 12 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.So maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it is a dim one.And if there’s not, go ahead and drive your car off a cliff because at least I’ll be making money writing your obituaries.Drew Belle Zerby is a 22-year-old mass communication senior from Vidalia.—-Contact Drew Belle Zerby at [email protected]