Spring Break
Nursing, teaching jobs grow in spite of rising unemployment
Evan Thomas
Issue date: 2/6/08 Section: Business and Technology
Jobless claims were up 69,000 from the previous week as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, signaling a steeper than expected rise in the nation's unemployment. Utah still maintains an unemployment rate under three percent, but placing Weber State University students into jobs after graduation may not be as easy as it has been.
While some jobs may be disappearing, there are still entire professional sectors suffering from labor shortages. Nursing, teaching, logistics, engineering and computer science are a few of the professions needing qualified labor.
"We can't produce enough nurses and caregivers for the graying of America," said Winn Stanger, WSU Career Services Director. "The need for nursing will continue."
Stanger also said the demand for nursing currently challenges WSU's ability to educate and train nurses in sufficient numbers. He said the WSU nursing program is forced to turn away 30 percent of applicants each year because class size is strictly limited.
Stanger said the need for teachers will continue as well. He said the state of Utah was 300 teachers short this year.
"I think it could be said that any teacher has multiple [job] offers available to them," Stanger said.
Stanger also said the major teacher shortages were in elementary education, special education, math and the sciences.
Dave Demille, WSU graduate in physical science composite teaching said, "I started looking for a job in early April and got a job in late May. Because I was a science teacher one of the school districts waived some of their hiring procedures to kind of put me at the front of the line."
The difficulty in attracting employees into these fields is a result of the type of work done and the wage paid.
"It's obviously hard," Demille said. "The money, the pain-in-the-neck students, the hoops you have to jump through and the demands are frustrating. More and more responsibility is placed on teachers in school to fill the need left by parents who aren't involved."
While some jobs may be disappearing, there are still entire professional sectors suffering from labor shortages. Nursing, teaching, logistics, engineering and computer science are a few of the professions needing qualified labor.
"We can't produce enough nurses and caregivers for the graying of America," said Winn Stanger, WSU Career Services Director. "The need for nursing will continue."
Stanger also said the demand for nursing currently challenges WSU's ability to educate and train nurses in sufficient numbers. He said the WSU nursing program is forced to turn away 30 percent of applicants each year because class size is strictly limited.
Stanger said the need for teachers will continue as well. He said the state of Utah was 300 teachers short this year.
"I think it could be said that any teacher has multiple [job] offers available to them," Stanger said.
Stanger also said the major teacher shortages were in elementary education, special education, math and the sciences.
Dave Demille, WSU graduate in physical science composite teaching said, "I started looking for a job in early April and got a job in late May. Because I was a science teacher one of the school districts waived some of their hiring procedures to kind of put me at the front of the line."
The difficulty in attracting employees into these fields is a result of the type of work done and the wage paid.
"It's obviously hard," Demille said. "The money, the pain-in-the-neck students, the hoops you have to jump through and the demands are frustrating. More and more responsibility is placed on teachers in school to fill the need left by parents who aren't involved."
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