Graduates seek out-of-state jobs – 40 percent of graduates leave MT for work

Like many University of Montana graduates, Tyler Gregson has spent the past six months job hunting.

With no luck in Montana, he’ll be leaving the state to find his first job after college.

Leah Young
For the Kaimin

http://www.kaimin.org/test2.php?ardate=20040212&id=2460

Gregson graduated with a double major in criminology and sociology, but has since lost interest in those areas and is now searching for jobs in freelance photojournalism.

He’s found more opportunities out of state.

“The economy is ridiculous in Montana, no matter where I look it’s stuff that I didn’t spend four years in college for,” Gregson said. “Every job that’s available is either McDonald’s or somewhere else where a college degree isn’t respected.”

In the past five years about 40 percent of UM’s students have left the state after graduation, said Bill Johnston, director of the Alumni Association. Johnston said the burden of student loans is a large factor in driving graduates out of Montana. He graduated in 1979 with no debt and was able to stay in Montana to work. But times have changed and kids are graduating with debts of thousands of dollars, he said.

“If I had owed that money I would have had to make a different decision in where I could work,” Johnston said.

A teacher’s salary is one example Johnston uses when talking about why students might have to leave the state. When students graduate owing $19,000 in student loans, they can’t afford to teach in Montana, where the salary is $27,487 on average.

Clint Pike, an senior majoring in elementary education, said he’ll be in debt for about half of what he paid for his college education, but that’s not his main reason for leaving the state to work. Pike is traveling to Alaska, where he said the scenery is just as beautiful as Montana.

“I’ve always loved Alaska, and I’ve heard they have lots of teaching jobs there,” Pike said.

Pike heard a teaching salary can start at around $40,000 a year in Alaska. The starting salary for elementary school teachers in Montana is around $25,314.

Some graduates don’t even bother job searching in Montana because they think they can make more money out of state.

Lori Richman, a 2000 graduate of UM, is an accountant in Oregon, where she said she makes $10,000 to $20,000 more than she would in Montana.

“Montana’s great, I love living there, but I didn’t try very hard because I didn’t think I was going to get the kind of money in Montana that I would get out of state,” Richman said.

But Richman does plan on returning to Montana.

“The trade-off will be worth it eventually,” Richman said. “But first I have to make more money.”

Of course, there are other reasons why graduates leave the state.

Mike Heuring, director of Career Services, said it all boils down to a personal choice.

Some students just come to Montana for the education and experience, he said. Last fall 3,051 out-of-state students were enrolled at UM.

Those who opt to stay after graduation might find a future with some of Montana’s largest private employers, including Albertson’s, Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance, First Interstate Bank, St. Patrick Hospital and Wal-Mart.