Last year’s education grads are struggling to find jobs while nursing and accounting grads are not only finding jobs, but jobs related to their majors.

One in five elementary education majors said they were still unemployed, and one in four physical education members said the same, the NIU Graduate Follow-Up Report for 1988-1989 reported.

In contrast, only three out of 128 accounting graduates and one out of 88 nursing graduates reported unemployment, the report stated. All accounting grads and all but one nursing major with jobs said their job was major-related.

The annual survey done by the Career Planning and Placement Center was given to NIU 1988 August and December and 1989 May graduates. Half of the 3800 alumni responded.

The report also said even of those elementary education graduates who did find jobs, one in five ended up with part-time jobs.

However, College of Education Dean Charles Stegman said jobs for future graduates are available because of teacher retirements and increasing numbers of students in large cities.

“For people that are willing to move, there are plenty of jobs available,” Stegman said. He also said there was an especially high demand for math and science teachers.

But education graduates were not the only ones with problems. One in four NIU alumni from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the College of Visual and Performing Arts said their jobs were not major-related.

All seven theatre graduates surveyed said they had jobs, but three of them said the job had nothing to do with their major.

Almost all sociology majors reported getting jobs, but only half those jobs were major-related.

Most technology and science graduates reported high employment, but four of the 14 (29 percent) chemistry majors along with three of 18 (23 percent) electrical engineers said they were still looking.

Vickie Oliver, a career placement counselor who helped put the graduate report together, said research and good interviewing skills will help those graduates with job-finding problems.

“Simply work that much harder at researching and trying to uncover those opportunities,” Oliver said.

Oliver also suggested looking in the right area. “I would say in order to get a job in the music industry, it would stand to reason that I would need to go to Nashville or Los Angeles—a center where the music industry is located.”