On the Topic of Jobs Forum

[craigdowney]

I was speaking to an attorney and a recent graduate and both said that, while the legal market is available, there are jobs. The problem is that most people out of school have so much debt that it isn't feasible for them to take those jobs. The jobs available pay too little for them to actually pay of their loans.

TL;DR People graduate with debt. There are available jobs, but they pay too little for graduates to feasibly accept. True/false?

[moonman157]

Well it's true that a lot of people take on way more debt than they can service with most jobs, but the problem isn't that people with a tremendous amount of debt are getting job offers but have to turn them down in order to find something higher-paying. The problem is that people with a tremendous amount of debt aren't getting job offers at all. We're still at roughly 2 law school graduates for every legal job available to graduates; those who get a full-time legal job (regardless of how much it pays) are still the lucky ones.

[cinephile]

There was a 10k/year plus monthly metro pass entry-level job posted a few years back. Is that what you're talking about? You'd do better folding sweaters at Anthro.

[Lord Randolph McDuff]

I would say yes and no. For TTTT, no, as above poster has indicated there aren't enough small firms and low level gov to employ every single law school grad. But for most people on this site, there will be extremely low paying options if they look for them. The economy is improving and small firms are thinking of expanding. I know people from my school have turned down offers of 40k. More likely they don't even apply to firms who pay associates that level... Who can blame them? 100k+ debt to work at a shit firm/business that offers no advancement and 40k a year?

The problem is there aren't nearly enough high paying jobs to pay back the loans.

[crazycanuck]

There's nothing wrong with the best students getting the high paying jobs and everyone else fights for the rest.

The problem is that Barry charges as much as Harvard.

This is pretty well documented, and there will probably be a market adjustment eventually.