DatelineCarolinaCollege students facing tough job market finding other income

College students find alternate ways to make cash in recession

By Scott Waggoner

Students who prefer alternatives to formal jobs, who don't have time to get a job or who can't find one in the recession's aftermath are turning to cleaning houses, mowing lawns, selling crafts and other ways of making money.

USC student Adrianne Eby, for instance, wanted to make some extra money, but classes left little time. She started cleaning houses and says she prefers that to having a formal job.

"It's nice not being held down by a job when I want to take a trip on the weekend or if I have a busy week at school," Eby said.

Finding other ways to make money can be important for some students after a historically low summer employment rate for youths, ages 16-24. Last July, 48.9 percent of youths were employed, 2.5 percentage points below a year earlier and the lowest rate for that month since the statistic first was recorded in 1948, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many adults who haven't found work because of the recession are taking the jobs traditionally held by youths, says Steve McLaughlin Jr., a labor market analyst with the state Department of Employment and Workforce.

South Carolina's unemployment rate fell to 10.5 percent in January from 10.9 percent in December, according to the department. But the state still lost 8,500 jobs, and McLaughlin says it could be at least two years before the job market gets back to where it was before the recession, which has cost South Carolina over 130,000 jobs.

To increase their chances of getting a job, youths should try to understand the needs of employers and sell their skills, McLaughlin says.

Tom Halasz, director of the University of South Carolina's Career Center, says many youths see the challenge of getting a job as overwhelming.

Youths have also struggled to find jobs because of poor communication skills, says Carolyn Couch, associate director at the Wake Forest University Career Center.

"Many students don't know how to effectively sell their skills to employers during interviews, which makes them less appealing," Couch said.

Aerotek, a temp agency in Columbia, helps prepare youths for interviews by holding mock ones.

"We give them a bunch of sample questions and allow them to get the jitters out ahead of time before the real interview," recruiter Chris Bellamy says.

Here are some ways students are still making money.

Adrianne Eby

The USC senior is taking 18 hours of classes and performing in a show put on by USC students in the College of Arts and Sciences. She doesn't have time for a job but makes money cleaning about three houses a week around Columbia.

She began the cleaning service as a freshman, advertising to professors through fliers in USC's Honors College break room, and business grew from word of mouth.

She charges $15 per hour and says it usually takes two to three hours to clean a house, which earns her about $150 a week. She loves to travel and uses the money she makes to save for future trips.

Eby said she likes working on her own and being able to see a finished product, though she knows there are some disadvantages, such as not having an official job reference when looking for work out of school.

Garrett Stimax

Stimax, a USC senior, did an unpaid internship in Guatemala over the summer and didn't have time for a job, so to make extra money he is trying to sell vinyl bowls to Columbia retailers such as Sid and Nancy. Stimax will sell each bowl for about $5 and is working out a deal with Papa Jazz, a Five Points record store, to buy junk records for 50 cents each to be melted.

Stimax, who started making vinyl bowls two years ago, heats the old records in an oven for about four minutes and then shapes the softened vinyl in creative ways.

He has made about 20 bowls and doesn't desperately need money. But he likes to always have some on the side for things such as going out to eat. He knows the job market is grim and says it's important for students to save any money they make.

"I don't want a lack of money to hold me back when I get out of school and start looking for a job," Stimax said.

Van Collins

Collins goes to Midlands Technical College and finds it difficult to fit a job into his schedule.

He has started mowing lawns on the weekends this semester to make extra money and advertises on craigslist.org and on fliers at Midlands Tech. Collins charges $10 per hour and says each lawn takes him about 45 minutes. He has three customers in Columbia.

Collins said he has mowed lawns since he was 16 and usually works by himself but will get help if he's working on a big lawn or if he needs to do weeding or edging. He uses the money he makes for going out on the weekends.