42% of last year's grads out of work; 40% of this year's grads will be unemployed

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

New graduates find nursing job market a bitter pill - The Daily Breeze

42 percent of last year's graduates still haven't found work, and 40 percent of this year's graduates will be unemployed as well, according to a survey conducted by the institute.

Even the most highly trained nursing school graduates, those with master's degrees, are having a difficult time finding work. Carol Massey, a former schoolteacher, went back to school for an advanced degree in nursing thinking these skills would be in high demand.

"It is frustrating," said Massey, who graduated this month from the nursing program at California State University, Dominguez Hills, in Carson. "There are such overwhelming numbers of nurses out there looking for work."

She recently applied at St. Jude Medical Center, and was told 1,400 others had applied for the position. Torrance Memorial Medical Center received 1,000 applications for 15 slots in its five-month residency program for new nurses that begins this summer, said Peggy Berwald, director of the program.

And, for the first time, the local hospital canceled its cohort of new training nurses in March because they didn't have enough job openings.

[LaurenMichele88]

Thanks for posting!

[linRdsNay]

no surprise there...i'm still unemployed after countless applications and very few interviews.

it doesn't answer the bigger question...what are all these new graduates supposed to do between now and the "two to four years" before the turn around?

the article really doesn't offer much hope for those that are still unemployed.

[livefully]

This is crazy! 4 years ago and still no change? I wonder what happened to the 40%.

[livefully]

I've become another statistic. So depressing

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

it doesn't answer the bigger question...what are all these new graduates supposed to do between now and the "two to four years" before the turn around?

Now that someone's revived this older discussion, I can now point out that the article missed the mark badly because the supposed "turnaround" in California's new grad nursing employment market has not yet taken place.

There is no true nursing shortage, folks!

[livefully]

I started my program in 2011, AFTER the article was published, and I was anticipating that i would be in demand once I was graduated with my BSN.

I'm just venting. It's been a particularly bad day, with the highest number of rejection emails so far.