Prospects

The U.S. has more college students than ever before, but that doesn't mean it has the white-collar jobs most of them want. Several professional fields are already jammed, warned the Veterans Administration last week, quoting facts & figures of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

One of the fields where college graduates can anticipate stiffest competition is engineering; close to 50,000 engineers will be graduated in 1950, but the annual replacement need is estimated at 7,000. Another is law, in which enrollments continue to increase despite the fact that many of last year's graduates are still not placed. Chemistry and psychology will soon be overcrowded unless the student has a graduate degree. The field of personnel work, and some areas of secondary education (especially physical education, social science and English) are also overcrowded. Professional fields where recruits are still badly needed: medicine, dentistry, nursing and grade-school teaching.

On the basis of the survey, the statisticians had a recommendation: more students ought to be getting set for the workaday world of the trades or should be prepared for a start as clerks and office workers.

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