Many Penn State students about to graduate are still searching the classifieds.

About 415,000 jobs were cut in late October, the largest amount in 21 years, making finding work after graduation increasingly difficult.

Unemployment jumped to 5.4 percent, the highest in five years, according to reports from the U.S. Department of Labor. Markets being hit most are manufacturing, construction, retail trade employment and the services industry, the report said.

According to the Department of Labor, these statistics are the first to broadly reflect the effects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks; the decline in the services industry can be directly linked to the attacks.

Employment rapidly declined in travel-related industries including hotels, auto services and auto rental agencies.

There are typically about 20,000 interviews conducted throughout the year at Penn State by potential employers, said Jack Rayman, director of Career Services. But that number decreased this fall.

"On-campus recruitment is down about 25 percent from last year," he said.

In fact, many of the big firms are not coming to campus anymore, including the firm that used to be the largest recruiter of Penn State students, Rayman said.

The decrease in campus recruitment is not the only problem facing students preparing for graduation. Some companies are rescinding job offers.

"We know of quite a few of those, maybe 50," Rayman said. "Usually what we do is talk to those companies and try to gain a severance package."

The hardest hit area is the consulting field, Rayman said.

But telecommunications, software and transportation areas are hurting as well.

"Companies that used to come and see lots of students are seeing fewer," Rayman said.

The decline in on-campus recruitment has many students worried, which has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of individual counseling sessions with Career Services, which is up about 100 percent from this time last year, Rayman said.

"I have an interview there (today)," said Eric Furman (senior-finance).

Furman, who is graduating at the end of the semester, used to work at Morgan-Stanley.

Until recently, he was promised a job with a company and a free ride through graduate school, but now he says, "they are not in the position to do that right now.

"Many of the jobs I was looking into were finance-based, but they are not hiring," he said.

According to a press release from the Smeal College of Business Administration, students graduating from graduate school are not facing as many problems.

It notes that 20 percent of the graduating class looking for employment has already accepted offers, and 30 percent are engaged in second- and third-round interviews.

Rayman said that one thing is certain for students graduating at the end of this semester, they "are going to have to make some compromises."