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7 college grads: How I'm surviving the jobs crisis

Nearly half a million fewer young adults had jobs in August than in July. But numbers don't tell the whole story. Recent grads share what they've faced in the job market.

Overqualified and underemployed

Ryan Scalzo
  • Name/age: Ryan Scalzo, 23
  • Job Status: Working in the same grocery store as he was before getting a college degree

Ryan Scalzo graduated from St. John Fisher in Rochester, N.Y., last year with a degree in corporate finance. He hasn't been able to find a job in investment banking or wealth management as he had hoped.

Instead, he's back working at the grocery store he worked at in high school, doing what he called "glorified janitor" work.

"I always used to say, 'I can't wait to get out of here when I graduate and have a career, not just a job,' " he said. "But it's just been a reality check that there's not much out there for a new face in the market."

Scalzo is still applying for jobs in the financial sector, but even positions at call centers and in the service sector are turning him away.

"I changed my approach to looking at jobs, looking at lower-end jobs that I was overqualified for," he said. "But even with those, they were looking to give those to older, more qualified people. That's how bad the situation is."

  @emilyjanefox - Last updated September 20 2012 05:36 AM ET

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