job market!

The baby-boomers. A great generation that might drain my income for the rest of my life, unless we do actually get some social security reform. But the large amount of those people born between 1946 and 1964 (my parents included) will benefit those of us in Gen Y (or is there a more recent name for us?).

"For the first time in many years, a Bureau of Labor Statistics analysis finds that total college-level job openings between 1998 and 2008 will nearly equal the number of college-educated entrants to the labor force. And a primary reason is the large number of retirements expected from workers at the leading edge of the "baby boom" generation who are in college-level jobs. The shift in balance will help shrink the total number of college graduates expected to end up in noncollege-level jobs or be unemployed to about 7 percent between 1998 and 2008, down from 14 percent over the previous decade."

SaWEET!

"In addition to encountering a more favorable job market, college graduates usually enjoy other benefits associated with more education. Notably, college graduates as a whole have lower unemployment and higher median earnings than do less-educated members of the labor force. In 1998, the strong economy was reflected in a low overall unemployment rate of 4.5 percent. College graduates fared better than that average, with unemployment of just 1.9 percent, and even better than the average of 4.9 percent for high school graduates. In terms of median earnings, college graduates earned about $41,000 in 1998, compared with the $23,000 that high school graduates earned--a premium of 78 percent.

Good prospects for college-level jobs, lower unemployment rates, and higher median earnings are strong incentives for attending college. Nevertheless, prospective students should consider other factors, such as which occupations will offer the most college-level jobs and which jobs are tailored to a student's particular skills and aptitudes. Nature of the work, earnings, and advancement potential vary by occupation, even among college-level jobs.

To understand the future job market for college graduates, it is important to consider past trends. Reporting historical data is of little value, however, without an explanation of how those data are derived. This section begins by describing the BLS approach to determining the college graduate job outlook, then examines data from the 1998 market."

the rest of the article is here - pretty interesting (to me): http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1155/is_3_44/ai_65540674

give it time

how good are these lyrics from the awesome jon mclaughlin--

Quiet landslide when nobody knows
Regretted decisions that nobody chose
Under water and sinking fast
No way out, no way to get back
What might have been is lost in the past


Just give it time
It's gonna get better
Now is not forever at all
Just give it time
Everything changes
Tomorrow comes today will be gone
Everything's gonna be fine
Just give it time, give it time

work!

we don't have class tomorrow (yay observed holidays!) so i'm hanging out watchin tv and giving a guitar lesson. just chillin' thinking about life. i am also trying to write a paper that's due tuesday but i'm distracted by the thought of work tomorrow. we have a lot of big orders this time of year that need to be filled, so it's going to be really busy, which i love. and i get to work all day so that means almost double the money i made last week, which is benefitial.

so now i'm thinking to years from now when i will be able to chill on a sunday night and prep for a week of work that i will hopefully love. i'm getting to the point in my college career where i'm ready to be done with homework assignments and papers and tests. i wanna be in the 'real world.'

pretty sure in 5 years i'll be reminiscing about my college days, wishing i was back at the FH hanging with the girls on a friday night. life is going to be crazy busy outside of college, too, but i'm thinking it's a different kind of busy. we'll see. i'm excited for it either way!

amy remember this.

Amy-

this is a note to yourself. sometimes life might suck. but, it will begin to suck less. then it will get good. then it might suck again.

but there will be those times that it will get really, really good. and then you'll remember the sucky times and think "yeah...that sucked. but it was worth it to get to this point. definitely worth it."

and even if you think things won't ever get better -- think where you might be without Christ in your life right at this second. anything you're ever going to go through is going to be way better than your best day in your life when you didn't have Him. for sure.

Amy

one more.

i wanted to add one to the list below-

my HR prof
"If it looks walks like a duck and talks like a duck, you're going to get sued."

priceless.

quotable.

Ohhh I love when people say things that can be taken the wrong way. Or when people say things that just sound funny and make you think about what they probably meant to say, causing you to totally miss out on everything else they said.

1. A librarian that met w/one of my classes to teach us how to research. Yep, I'm a senior, I know how to use the library there, Al. What kept me from ditching the class was the fact that I knew Al knew a lot of big words, but tended to get really excited about research and flub up. Words he used included:
"Pamplets" (pamphlets. those silent h's are tricky)
"Gigarntuin" (gigantuin - but not...)
"Literatly" (literally)

2. I overheard some fun things the other day. Students, Professors - anyone can say something that can be taken the wrong way, or show how much they are not thinking about how they are sounding:
"I start wearing shoes when I see snow." (good luck when it's 0 degrees)
"The main reason we should switch to the metric system is that it's easier to add and subtract from 0 than it is from 32." not going to touch that one.
"If it's legal, it's ethical." - b school dean. hmm...
My Broadcast Prof-
"It's not a good idea to break the rules. You can bend them, but they might lead you away in handcuffs."
"The Augustana sports scene - that's what USD calls intramurals."
My Econ Prof-
"I now use Wikipedia more than I should. But I never leave any evidence."
"I've been a student longer than most of you have been alive."

Well it's been awhile to say the least. Life has been so flippin' hectic these past few weeks. I'm not even going to get into it.

Lately my time in the word has been next to nothing. Here and there I'll get a bit of encouragement from church or Bible study. But I've been realizing hardcore that those things are suppliments to my spiritual growth; If I don't have solid time w/God at least every other day, I won't grow. Actually, I've found myself backslidding into habits that I once thought I could never overcome. I did overcome them after time. And then I fell back into them because I didn't have adequate fellowship this summer, or time in the word or a prayer life at all. I hate that I have to learn the power of God's Word in my life the wrong way- by leaving it out of my life.

Today was a good day, the first in awhile. I have amazing friends who seek after the Lord and are always encouraging and challenging me in my faith. I don't often hang around non-Christians, but when I do, I tend to realize again how lucky I am I've found the source of ultimate joy, love, peace, hope and forgiveness.

Last night was Vespers. Always a highlight of the week; usually it's the best part. Last night was no different. And after a crappy weekend, it was the thing I needed. I went into practice very mad, almost to the point of tears, pretty much wanting to throw a pitty-party for myself. Instead I was able to focus on the words that were sung. I took them to heart. And it made a huge difference.

Tonight I was on the way home, flipping radio channels in search of something good. I often listen to the radio a lot more when I have a MCOM radio class- last semester I had Audio Production, and this semester, Broadcast News, of which radio news is a part. I digress. I settled on LIFE 96.5 FM, a station I would be more inclined to make fun of than listen to.

But they had this guy talking about making Christ the number one thing in your life, and it's something I have been trying to do for the past few weeks. Last week I finally understood that I can't get everything done in a day that I would like to, so I need to just give up my day to the Lord and do what He wants me to.

More on this later, I'm sure, as I forget this and try to put things that I think are 'urgent' ahead of those that are actually important.