As America slides toward a major recession, employment among deaf and hard of hearing workers is certain to suffer. This will be cause for some anxiety among college students - will there be jobs available for them after graduation?
If you're in school and worried about this question, the time to plan ahead is now.
Doing internships is a terrific way to acquire some experience, get your foot in the door at potential employers, get a sense of what work you enjoy and which working environments you feel most comfortable in.
There are a number of programs that can help you out with locating internships. One of them has a proven track record of leading to jobs for deaf and hard of hearing interns - the Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP). The program is jointly run by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Department of Defense. Every year they send out trained people to interview potential hires at over 200 colleges across the country.
Interestingly, the two colleges where the most interviews are conducted are Gallaudet and NTID. No other college - including many that are much larger - are even close.
The most recent numbers on the program are from 2005, and show that 243 deaf students were interviewed that year - 50 from Gallaudet, 69 from NTID, and 124 from other locations.
Of the 69 students interviewed at NTID, 9 were hired, for a hire rate of 13%. Of the 50 students interviewed at Gallaudet, 13 were hired, for a hire rate of 26%.
There's also a breakdown of deaf and hard of hearing hires by communication preference. The hire rate for signing Deaf hires is 18.18%, deaf and "somewhat oral" at 16.36%, and deaf and "very oral" at 19%.
A total of 1,913 students were interviewed at all colleges. 12% of those were deaf. The overall hiring rate from all the colleges combined runs just over 18%. Gallaudet, at 26%, did significantly better than the average in 2005.
Where are the hires going?
Government jobs, mainly, and most of them military. Seventeen different government agencies, with nearly 68% of all hires going to work for the Department of Defense. 8.5% went to the Department of Agriculture, nearly 8% to the Department of Labor, and the rest scattered among different agencies.
The program is open to private sector employers, but in 2005 only one private firm hired a student through WRP.
Of the 350 people - deaf, hard of hearing and hearing - hired through the program in 2005, 56 filled administrative support positions. The second largest group, 39 hires, went into computer applications. 32 filled business positions, 26 to managerial jobs, and 25 to engineering. Apart from administrative support, the fields with the strongest hire rates were computer-related. This includes web development, hardware, and applications.
The Workforce Recruitment Program is not new - it has been around for 23 years, since 1995. In that first year, 148 people found work through the program. Growth since then has been slow but steady, having more than doubled to 350.
The portrait that emerges from these numbers is that many are called, but few are chosen. With an overall hire rate of 18%, roughly 1 in 5 of those interviewed got jobs. Another key insight is that the military needs people with computer skills.
The average hire rate of deaf, hard of hearing and hearing applications is about the same. Job security will be a big issue this year, and may remain a serious problem for years to come. There's no way to sugarcoat this - it could get ugly.
Although government jobs have traditionally been a haven of safety during hard times, much of the current government workforce is actually contracted out to private businesses. When the economy shrinks, tax revenues shrink with it, and the federal budget gets squeezed hard. This will force lawmakers to make tough choices about program funding, endangering job opportunities and benefits for all deaf and hard of hearing students and workers.
The time to think and plan ahead is now - before circumstances make your choices for you.
Links for Workforce Information and Statistics:
U.S. Department of Labor's Workforce Recruitment Program
Workforce Recruitment Program for College Students with Disabilities
Statistics for Fiscal Year 2005
Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP) Program Experiences:
Nathan W. Kester's blog
Amanda C.
WRP for Employers
For Jobseekers:
Northern Virginia Resource Center
AAPD Job Opportunities
Deaf & Hard of Hearing in Government
American Association for the Advancement of Science EntryPoint program
Booz Allen Hamilton's Emerging Leaders program
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Kevin McLeod is a dual Canadian/American citizen with a diverse background in creative arts. His web development experience includes work for Gallaudet University, iXL and the Washington Post. His writing, graphic design and editorial service for the deaf press has included the GA-SK Newsletter, the NAD Broadcaster, and Silent News. He currently works as a Mental Health Technician at the National Deaf Academy in Mount Dora, FL, the world's only psychiatric treatment center designed for deaf residents.