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According to a recent Vault article Are Interns Killing the Job Market?, the decline in employment numbers in the last month may not be dues to a more dismal outlook on the economy. There is a seasonal element to the hiring and firing process. In addition to low new employment figures, the number of temporary workers has declined significantly by around 10%. This is likely to be correlated with the vast inflow of interns into the market. Because interns that are unpaid are not counted in employment figures.

By definition, interns tend to be unpaid because they are working to gain the work experience. Thus the inflow of interns squeezing out the cost of hiring temporary workers means that the outlook should not be interpreted by numbers alone. Although temporary workers tend to be a sign of permanent hiring, but interns also are a great indicator of future employment. But they are often not counted.

In this job market, most college students are working unpaid internships. The paid are the few grails that we seek but sometimes working unpaid might lead us to jobs we like the most. This summer, I am working as a paid research assistant in Finance research and also as an unpaid intern at a boutique investment bank. Although I can add to my bank account with my research job, the investment bank job is the one that I can learn the most from. Because the jobs we want often tend to be the most competitive or in the spotlight jobs, sacrificing pay means that the experience and the joy of working there is our reward. This morning, I met 2 of my high school friends on the metra and a college friend while walking. All of them are working unpaid jobs. The English Major is working at a non-profit organization focused on improving literacy. The Political Science major is working at a government regulatory and tax department. The Pre-Med biology major is working at a laboratory in Feinberg. My point is, that sometimes, the jobs that will help you the most are unpaid. And it is those jobs that we will likely go back to after graduation. This ties back to the earlier point because if most interns are working unpaid in jobs they are passionate about, the economic indicators on employment are missing a major factor on the reality of job entry.

In another article, Searching for The Perfect Job With a Side of Conscience, Stacy McCoy was searching for the perfect job that was for-profit (didn’t have to live on cups of noodles) and had a CSR (corporate social responsibility) aspect to it. She had a hard time finding a job that she wanted and proceeded to found a company called Give to Get Jobs that focuses on providing a job between job seekers and companies that fit into this fold of for-profit and non-profit niche. Sometimes dream jobs can’t always be found, that’s why you might have to tap into your entrepreneurial side and create it. For information on market frictions and the difficulties of finding jobs, see Nobel Prize winning economist Dale Mortensen speak on the subject here.

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