Pictured Above: Emily Hickmon (left) poses with her graduation cap after earning her criminology degree. Hailey Ostwalt had a position lined up with a nonprofit organization which was revoked and later reinstated.
Courtesy of Emily Hickmon and Hailey Ostwalt
By Trevor Martindale
After five months and “over 100 job applications,” Emily Hickmon, a spring 2020 USF St. Petersburg criminology graduate, packed her bags and left an adverse Tampa Bay job market for North Carolina.
“Leaving my life in Florida behind was hard, but within less than a month I had 10 job offers that would pay more than I would ever find in Florida with the current job market,” Emily Hickmon said in an email to The Crow’s Nest.
Hickmon is not alone.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the job market has been stagnant and unwelcoming.
According to the Pew Research Center, the national unemployment rate went from 3.8 percent in February, to 13 percent in May.
Since then, the unemployment rate has steadily recovered, but still sits at a 7.9 percent nationwide and 7.6 percent in Florida.
Recent graduate Hailey Ostwalt was impacted by the initial wave of pandemic layoffs.
“I had been laid off from my customer service job due to COVID-19 and was hoping to find something in my field, but I was originally having trouble finding anything at all,” Ostwalt said.
Due to her volunteer experience during her time at USF St. Petersburg, Ostwalt was originally offered a position in a nonprofit organization.
Her offer was suddenly revoked, but eventually reinstated.
“Once the organization was able to shift gears and maintain the same mission in a virtual setting the hiring freeze was lifted and I was able to begin working in the same position that I was originally offered,” Ostwalt said.
A high level of unemployment also means there is a population of unemployed individuals with years of experience in their respective field.
Hickmon noted that competing with such a large pool of experienced individuals was impossible.
“I had to compete against not only my peers, but also candidates with years of experience that had lost their jobs due to COVID-19 and other recent events,” Hickmon said. “This made it especially difficult to find a job that pays even close to a livable wage.”
Ostwalt blames the economic system on the current ills of the job market.
“I am not confident in the economic system we live in,” Ostwalt said. “We were placed in a system that values profit and property over people and community. This has only been made clearer during this pandemic. There will be no true economic prosperity until we put the needs of the people at the forefront.”
Hickmon attributes Florida’s poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic to the job market.
“On top of a growing job market, there are also actual seasons here (in North Carolina) and life saving COVID-19 guidelines still in place. I am very happy with my decision to relocate out of Florida and encourage anyone who is on the fence about it to take a chance.”
