Graduating college in May, I knew that finding a job wouldn’t be easy. Not only was the market in awful shape, but I was graduating with a Bachelors in Psychology, a degree that is often considered rather worthless until Masters level and up. I, of course, had plans of attending grad school, but that costs money. Still, the loan company offers 6 months of deferment time after graduating from college for students to find jobs and begin to make a bit of money before the loan bills begin to pile up. 6 months is enough, right? Not always.

According to the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of unemployed still looking for work 27 weeks and over rose 3%, and that’s from an already whopping 40% in 2009, now 43% in 2010. Finding work is becoming an increasingly daunting prospect, even in the economy’s recovery. Why?

Crawling: First, the economy’s recovery is actually happening rather slow. So, while unemployment has been treated with triage, its number rising more slowly than it was before, and while businesses are beginning to report bigger gains, all of this is happening at a snail’s pace compared to what we’re used to. Yes, those with jobs and money are more confident in their spending, but jobs are still more reluctant to hire than they were before.

Responsibility Shifts: As always, when troubled times hit, the employees remaining in a company find themselves saddled with more responsibilities than they had before. They’re forced to bear these responsibilities if they want to keep their job amidst the turmoil of an unstable economy. However, when the economy begins to rebound, as it is now, companies find they can continue to place the extra responsibility on their current workers rather than hire more. Hiring new people is simply a costly investment and complicates all sorts of things, such as scheduling. With a slower recovery this problem is compounded, since, in a fast rebound, employers will find that their current staff is simply not suitable even with the increased workload and hire.

What’s worse is, according to an article on SmartMoney.com by Catey Hill and Jonnelle Marte, that many of the new jobs reported by workers are part-time instead of full-time positions, an increase of 15% over last year. I’ve run into this situation first hand, beginning work at a local Deli in order to simply keep up with bills and keep my head afloat during the tide. It’s far more efficient for the store in which the Deli operates to simply hire a number of part-time workers than a few full-time ones. The reason for this is due to the fact that full-time workers begin to accrue paid-vacation time, require benefits, and often end up working overtime, which costs more. It’s simply more cost-effective to have an employee or two more and cut hours for employees across the board.

Of course, while this method is effective for the company, it’s certainly not desirable to most workers. Without the benefits provided by their workplace, a lot of people are having to find alternative methods to obtain healthcare and have no action in place to invest their hard-earned money or work towards a 401k. Job security is tenuous at best and many workers such as myself are simply nervous.

The fact of the matter is that if you’re out of work and looking, you’re not alone in your pain. Those who find themselves qualified for higher-pay may have to settle for less-ideal part-time positions, or, according to the above mentioned article, begin to use their specific skills for freelance, contract-based work. Having some form of a job is certainly better than no job, as a lot of people are finding. My plan was to find a job just so I could keep paying my bills, but my job hunt, while temporarily reprieved, has not finished. That means, along with all those who are unemployed or working part-time positions that are not a part of, or below their level of, qualification, the job hunt isn’t over for me yet. My earlier experiences of obtaining a job were mild in comparison to the current situation, which I have “endearingly” termed “The Great Hunting Adventure”.