Sunday May 23 2010
Mish posted this article from Bloomberg about the difficulty of finding a job upon graduation.
Many of our students are already working and San Antonio is faring much better than the national average. Still I urge accounting students to obtain a certification now as quickly as possible, we are liable to have a sideways at best economy for many years.
Now for those of you that believe I am just being a fear monger, take a look at this chart from Business Insider, it juxtaposes the S and P from 2000 with the Nikkei from 1989 to now, with the US DOW from 1929 to 1949. Here is what happened.
FDR never stimulated private investment in the economy. The best he could do as create the WPA which paid people to work on various government projects. Now we are are not even doing that we are just paying people 'not to work' by extending unemployment benefits to perpetuity.
Japan never would write off its bad loans, so rather than undergo a couple of tough years, it has never recovered from its all time high in 1989. The result is not one but two lost decades. Japan the juggernaut that could do no wrong in 1989 has not been heard from since.
Accounting is probably one of the few career fields where it will help more than hurt by having the highest degree possible. A few weeks ago I read an article about how companies are choosing to higher employees with the least amount of education where possible because they know they will have to pay someone with a Master's degree a higher salary than they would have to pay someone with just a high school education. Just another way for companies to cut costs.
Posted by: Christy Moyer | May 23, 2010 at 03:38 PM
Good point, we recommend examining all certifications possible and finding those that re relevant to your area of interest. There is a lot more available than just CPA.
Christy is right, those who have shown they go the extra mile to obtain certifications will be more in demand.
Posted by: Dennis Elam | May 23, 2010 at 04:26 PM