When Laura Spencer thought about what she’d do if she weren’t working, one thing popped into her mind.
“Napping,” she said.
The drain of working two jobs and going to school often leaves her wishing for more pillow time.
Instead, the University of Iowa senior sits at the IMU Campus Information Center, waiting to give advice to the next person in need. Meanwhile, she’s read “every newspaper,” and she faces working another shift at her second job, the Currier Residence Hall front desk, where she has worked since her freshman year.
Many students will tell similar stories of long hours, according to an annual University of California, Los Angeles survey that found freshman student employment is at an all-time high.
According to the recent nationwide survey, 47.2 percent of incoming 2004 freshmen said there was a “very good chance” they would seek employment.
Women had a greater chance of seeking employment. 53.3 percent of women, compared with the 39.6 percent of men surveyed who said they would seek employment during their first year of school.
While student employment at the UI has remained consistent in recent years, Cynthia Seyfer, an assistant director of Student Financial Aid, said more students are on the job market.
“It’s become a lot more difficult to find jobs,” she said. “We’ve seen an increase in traffic on Jobnet.”
Jobnet is an employment search engine for UI students, which includes on- and off-campus jobs.
The university employed 13,659 students in the 2003-04 school year. Those numbers were slightly down from the 2002-03 total of 13,879.
– Courtesy of U-Wire.
