Struggling Economy Leaves Some Underemployed

Update, July 8: The report for June shows lower job growth than expected and an uptick in the national unemployment rate to 9.2 percent.

Original story: The latest monthly jobs report will be released Friday in an atmosphere of uncertainty for many in Athens, including recent University of Georgia graduates looking for meaningful work.

While Athens enjoys than many places in Georgia, some recent UGA graduates, like 28-year-old Charles Campbell, are second-guessing the value of their degrees.

When Campbell received his bachelor’s in biology in 2006, he was unsure of the next step. He had plans of going on to dental school, but decided first to take a year off to try and find work.

After working several odd jobs, he took an office gig at Reliance Trust Company, where he was paid an hourly wage plus commission.

“I was working in an office doing paperwork most of the day,” Campbell said. “After working there a while, I realized that wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and then they started cutting benefits and we all knew somebody was going to lose their job anyway.”

The company eventually closed the branch he worked for, so Campbell took a job as a bartender at an Athens pub and shortly thereafter met his now wife, Kacie.

He bartended for about three years, but when the couple discovered they would be having a baby in 2009, Campbell knew he would have to find a way to make more money.

Kacie’s brother landed him a job as a salesman with a car audio and accessories company in Savannah, so they packed up and moved there in April 2011.

Campbell now brings home a week’s pay of about $525 after taxes. Looking back, he says that his biology degree hardly seems worth the trouble or the $20,000 debt he is still paying off for student loans.

“I could be doing what I’m doing now right out of high school,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I’m the only person who works there that has a college degree. I like the job, but I could be at least $20,000 richer without my student loans, which will be even more after I pay all the interest.

“Logically, if I had started in sales 10 years ago instead of going to college, I could have even moved up in the industry and be making more money.”

But with a wife, a 2-year-old son and another on the way, Campbell says he is thankful just to be employed at all.

“There are a lot of people without any job, so I’m thankful for what I do have,” he said. “I just didn’t do things in the right order: I got the wife, then the kids, then the job.”