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Monday July 16 1:53 PM ET

Young, Educated And Jobless After U.S. Tech Bust

By Marjorie Olster

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three months ago, Jennifer Bussell quit a six-figure job in Internet marketing, packed up her swanky condo on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive and moved to New York in search of an exciting new opportunity.

Her timing could not have been worse.

Unemployed, broke and living for free at a friend's house 2-1/2 hours from the city, Bussell has joined the ranks of highly educated, experienced and once-highly paid young professionals adrift without jobs in the wake of an investment bust in U.S. technology companies.

``I'm on my third pre-midlife crisis,'' Bussell, 32, said at a recent meeting of her job networking group in a downtown bookstore coffee shop. ``I've been watching a lot of Oprah.''

Watching the feel-good talk show hosted by media superstar Oprah Winfrey is a luxury few working women can afford because it airs on weekday afternoons. But Bussell and her out-of-work peers have too much time on their hands because jobs for professionals are as scarce as cashmere sweaters in the steamy New York summer.

Recruiters in New York and Boston say they have three to four times as many qualified applicants for each professional job they have to fill, compared with two years ago, before the current economic slowdown took hold.

The technology industry has been particularly hard hit after years of booming investment in the sector suddenly dried up. The Industry Standard magazine's Web site, which tracks layoffs and failures at Internet-related companies, has counted about 131,000 job losses since December 1999 and 245 corporate failures.

Nationwide, the unemployment rate has climbed to 4.5 percent from a low of 3.9 percent last October.

Bussell is one of at least a million Americans looking for work and although she is educated, experienced and determined, it is not easy to find. Dressed in weather-defying cowboy hat and leather boots on a particularly hot and sticky day recently, Bussell, with her long, red Botticelli Venus hair, exuded charm and vivaciousness. But her inviting personality, her 10-year work history and her college degree have done her little good in the dozens of job interviews she has gone to so far this year.

``I've interviewed at every imaginable advertising and marketing company in New York,'' Bussell said. She has also sent out nearly 1,000 resumes electronically, but has not received one job offer she considered viable.

``I had a great condo on Lake Shore Drive. But I knew I was ready to make it in New York. I thought I had the experience and expertise to land a good job in Manhattan,'' Bussell said. ''Now I'm asking myself 'Why did I do it?'''

HARVARD MBA COLLECTS UNEMPLOYMENT

Even a masters in business administration degree from prestigious Harvard University, considered a ticket to the fast track in American business, no longer guarantees a job in this tough economic environment.

``Coming out of Harvard, it was like 'the world is your oyster,''' said Jason Stone, a 31-year-old casualty of Internet downsizing who received his Harvard MBA in 1999.

``There was every opportunity imaginable,'' he said of the job climate in 1999. ``People were looking for smart, motivated, hard-working, ambitious people willing to take on a lot of responsibility without a lot of structure and experience.''

Since graduation, Stone has worked in three Internet start-ups as a project manager and, like Bussell, earned six-figure salaries. He was laid off from his last job three months ago and now collects government unemployment benefits.

Traditionally, Stone said, Harvard MBAs went into banking and consulting. In 1999, he said his classmates were starting out in consulting jobs that paid $110,000-$130,000 a year with a $20,000 signing bonus.

The frenzied boom in new Internet and high-tech companies was at its height and a new trend was afoot -- MBAs from Harvard and other prestigious universities were flocking in increasing numbers to new upstart ``dot-com'' companies instead of the traditional professions.

``There was a lot more flexibility in terms of 'Did you have the right skill set?' Stone said. ``A lot of us were entering uncharted territory. But this came back to bite us, the lack of relative experience.''

Stone and his Generation-X peers in their early 30s had worked only during the boom times of a record 10-year economic expansion and had grown used to being in demand. Unemployment fell steadily over the past decade from a high of 7.8 percent in June 1992 to a 30-year low of 3.9 percent in October 2000.

It was unprecedented to have a whole sector run by people under 35, labor market experts said.

Stone, Bussell and others like them resist any compromise on salary, job status or lifestyle, although as time drags on, they acknowledge that may change.

``I think a lot of us got spoiled,'' said Stone. ``We got to do whatever we wanted to do, and some of us got a lot of money. Young people were starting their own businesses. Now the thought of going into an entry-level position is sort of a tough pill to swallow.''

A BITTER TASTE OF JOB INSECURITY

Academics and economists who study labor markets agree that compared with a decade ago, professionals today face greater job insecurity even though their overall unemployment levels remain much lower than less-educated workers.

In 1992, just after the last recession, the unemployment rate for Americans who did not complete high school was 11.3 percent, compared with 3.3 percent for college graduates. By June 2001, those rates had fallen to 6.8 and 2.2 percent respectively, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

``The '90s has been all about the white-collar work force having to experience the same kind of job insecurity and risk that used to belong to blue-collar workers,'' said John Challenger, chief executive of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The 1990s was a decade of downsizing, and companies under unrelenting pressure to keep their costs down have become much more sophisticated at measuring who is contributing most to the bottom line, Challenger said.

As a result, MBAs with little experience and high salaries are having a more difficult time finding and keeping jobs.

BUSTED FLAT

Bussell has burned through her savings and is looking for part-time work that pays a fraction of what she used to earn. But so far, she has been rejected from four low-paying jobs on the grounds that she is overqualified.

Every week, she meets a job networking group with a dozen other 30-something out-of-work lawyers, investment bankers and MBAs. Most have 10 years or more of job experience and one group member speaks five languages.

The sessions are part brainstorming, part group therapy, part coffee klatch. They exchange job tips and recruiter names but digress frequently to important topics such as what nights of the week you can watch reruns of ``Sex in the City'' -- a popular cable television show about single New York women.

Many are living on government unemployment checks which, at $405 a week, do not go far in a city where a studio apartment can easily rent for $2,000 a month or more.

``It doesn't pay the rent but it pays the cleaning lady and the therapist,'' said one woman who did not want to be named.

Bussell is considering creative solutions to her financial straits: ``My car broke down so I want to start dating a mechanic,'' she joked.

Finally, one of the group brings a job opportunity to the table -- a friend is leaving her work as an office assistant at a penile implant clinic. It pays $10 an hour but there is a catch -- they want the new employee to assist in surgery. A collective groan emerges.

-- Nice work if you (can@get.it), July 17, 2001

Answers

I'll say! I posted an entry level IT job and got over 100 resumes in less than a week. Most of the applicants (80%) are way over qualified. It kinds of reminds me when our national clown (Raygun) was farting in the White House. You were lucky to find a job then, let alone a good paying job. Fucking repugs!

-- Tony Baloney (Fuck the@repugs.com), July 17, 2001.

Tony expects the feds to somehow rain jobs at 6-figure salaries down from the skies???

Dem or repub president - don't expect them to start or stop the economic cycle without declaring a war.

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), July 17, 2001.

Tony baby, I got an "entry level" job for ya.

-- (lorelei@jiffy.lube), July 17, 2001.

Unemployment fell steadily over the past decade from a high of 7.8 percent in June 1992 to a 30-year low of 3.9 percent in October 2000.

It kinds of reminds me when our national clown (Raygun) was farting in the White House. You were lucky to find a job then, let alone a good paying job.

Is there a pattern emerging here? Clinton was so bad for the country wasn't he? *snear* and all of the BS the repugs spout will not change reality. Bush may be buying the hispanic vote with promises of citizenship, but all those unemployed citizens will not be voting for him.

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), July 17, 2001.

is it hard to be humble,when your perfect in so many way's?? the salvation army has good bean soup. remember that guy 'with the sign=''will work for food''

-- al-d. (dogs@zianet.com), July 17, 2001.

libs are idiots. Does this mean that you and your relatives are called libs? Is it like fillers? You know stupid people like yourself that just fill space and vote Republican? Why do you call your relatives idiots? Are you stupid? You always rant about the stupidest things. Its almost like you have wood dust in your head. I would like you to come over for a cookout sometime and drink some bud with me and my posse.

-- I'm a friend (of the idiot@libs.com), July 17, 2001.

Tony, why don't you just hire all 100? Think of it as doing your part to keep unemployement down. If poor people could hire they would. Looks like it's up to you.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), July 17, 2001.

OK Cherri,

Since no one else has explained this to you I will try. You quoted "Unemployment fell steadily over the past decade from a high of 7.8 percent in June 1992 to a 30-year low of 3.9 percent in October 2000."

Now think about this. If unemployment was at it's high in June of 92, that indicates that it was falling BEFORE Clinton took office. And, since unemployment was at it's 30 year low in October of 2000 that indicates that it was rising BEFORE Bush was elected. So much for your "*sneer*" because Clinton happened to be in office during an economic upturn, the ecomonmy runs in cycles.

I shudder to think you have a higher than grade school education without learning that fact.

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), July 18, 2001.

Now that the flames over who's responsible have died down...

The amazing thing about the people described in the article are too fuckin' arrogant to take a job to support themselves. (but has not received one job offer she considered viable and then Now the thought of going into an entry-level position is sort of a tough pill to swallow) These infants thought that they were living on easy street when they didn't even pay their dues. And they *were* living on easy street (because of stupid investers) but now have begun to realize that life just isn't that sweet.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), July 18, 2001.

Uncle, dearest, haven't republican presidents presided over economic downturns since Hoover? There was a recession under Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford (inherited), Reagan, and Bush I. I don't remember the economy under Carter. Was it just a fluke that the economy was good under Clinton?

-- helen (bad@times.are.no.fun), July 18, 2001.

Maria, I completely agree with you.

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), July 18, 2001.

Oops on the typos!

Helen, yes it was a fluke.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), July 18, 2001.

Maria, we've had more bad years than good?

-- helen (puzzled@this.news), July 18, 2001.

The republican administrations come back on you like a bad meal. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but we all have the same opportunity for riches right? Only in America! Look at how many down on their luck immigrants have come to America and made it big. Also, look at how many dumb but devious assholes have screwed over the masses and made it big (with a little help from their friends). Its the good ole boy network on a global scale. It reminds me of the comedian (I think it was Pryor) who used to immitate a man talking to his woman after sex, "I got mine - you get yours!"

-- The bad boy (bad boys@live.com), July 18, 2001.