i don’t know what majors your students are pursuing, but to me there is a pretty good future ahead of them. there are many people who are going to be retiring and there is virtually no one who is able to replace them, recession or not. In practically any skilled industry, there are shortages of skilled labor and the ones who are already there are ready to retire.
besides, i remember what it was like when i was their age – i thought i was going to be making $70k to $90k right out of college (not!). Anything less than that was considered a failure. Tell them to plan ahead, look towards what is going to happen, and educate themselves to take advantages of the numerous opportunities that are going to present themselves. Learn as many skills as possible, sign up for every difficult task imaginable, and for god’s sake, do not show up to a job interview with tattoos and piercings.
My profession itself needs an influx of about 50 land surveyors a year to replace those who are retiring and leaving (just a week ago, I attended the retiring of SIX land surveyors in San Diego alone). My industry is only putting out about 20. My wife is an electrical engineer. Her own profession is a difficult one, but she sees so many openings for electrical engineers, software designers, programmers, technicians. She and I are often the youngest workers in our field, with no one who can replace us.
