Growing Occupations, Shrinking Occupations

Gee, I'm graduating this spring into a shrinking field. It would be interesting to see this broken down further though because not all finance positions are the same.

Joe, If it makes you feel any better, most fields look like they're shrinking right now, even though you know in the long run that's not really so. I feel for you, though. My brother will be in potentially a similar position next year, graduating with a Master's degree in Economics. He's extremely bright and personable, and he's been turned down for dozens of internships because people want exactly the right match of grades, experience, computer skills, etc: they can cherry-pick based precisely on the background they're looking for right now.

Still, if you have to choose between that and the threat of losing a job that pays well in a shrinking field when you have a wife and 2 kids solely dependent on your income: it's easier to be the graduate, although it may not feel like that now.

I was wondering as where you got these data

The contrast between "healthcare support" (+10.4%) and "healthcare practitioner and technical" (+2.2%) is striking. Does "healthcare support" mainly mean administrative/clerical?

Thanks CompEng. I'm sure things will turn around eventualy. I also have a job now, it's just not any where near my field. I got a 12.5% pay cut this week because my company ended weekend premium. On one hand I'm glad to have a job that provides positive cash flow after living expenses and student loan payments--even after the pay cut. On the other hand I'm ready to start a new carreer but don't see much oportunity now.

I've become more open to areas of finance I'd be interested in. I've re-entered the exploritory phase of job searching where I'm thinking about what type of carreer I'd want instead of just sticking to my origional ideas.

Joe, that's probably a good idea. Early in your career, you're not in a place where a change in direction would necessarily involve a sizable pay cut. That's a big advantage when looking for jobs. Half the people I talk to are not quite where they thought their education and interests would take them.

When you have more experience, that's not the case. That's why a lot of the "retraining" crap PR going around rings so hollow with me: switching careers involves flushing a lot of experience down the toilet and taking a sizable pay cut under the best of circumstances. Thankfully when I've been laid off, the field itself has been healthy even after the dot-com bust, so the overall experience has worked out positively. Switching fields entirely, on the other hand, would have been very painful. At half the pay there are a ton of things I could do. At current pay, the list is much smaller. :)

But I digress. Finance as a whole is still a pretty big field. In any field that big, there's usually some opportunity as long as you look like you're a cut above the rest. It does take some time to find a company that's not in a hiring freeze, but it will come.
Pay cuts suck, and I'm sorry to hear about yours. But it does seem to be the direction the wind is blowing right now.

It is interesting to note that the two industries which actually add to the country's wealth, Farming,Fishing and Mining are at the botom of the list.