How will the recession affect coop?

[samspotting]

Has anyone thought about this? My university (waterloo in Canada), has contacted everyone saying they should return to their current coop jobs, and that getting new jobs will be intense.

I am in computer science and pure math.

 

[Dr Transport]

Co-op's will be far and few between. My company has removed all of the requisitions from their HR website and from what I hear are not planning on filling any of the positions that were advertised.

 

[Fearless]

The recession will be felt much harder in north america than anywhere else really.

Canada will be greatly affected, but because of their trade with the EU and Asia I believe they will have less gruesome conditions than the US will probably have.

And Coops will not be given out as carelessly as in the highs of the economy. I would advise you to merit yourself as best you can to get one of those highly-sought after placements.

 

[Moonbear]

And Coops will not be given out as carelessly as in the highs of the economy.

Are you certain of this? Do you have evidence to back this up? Do you have evidence they have been given out "carelessly" even in the highs of the economy?

Coops can be a fairly inexpensive means for a company to try out potential new hires, but since they come with no obligation to hire them at the end, for all I know, they could turn out to be more beneficial for companies to hire students through coops to fill temporary employment gaps rather than spend a lot on full-time permanent employees. I don't think I know any better than the OP if they will be affected, so if you have evidence to back up these statements, we could all benefit from seeing it.

 

[Werg22]

Moonbear, if there are temporary employment gaps as you say, a company will not seek to outsource labor in times of recession.

 

[physics girl phd]

I tend to agree with Moonbear. Some agencies and companies might rather hire "cheap" students in cooperative education/intern positions than new full-time permanent employees (with health-care/benefits costs). I've seen it happen.

But of course, some companies might also choose to pull back on coop funds, since it's a more flexible part of the budget.

This conversation rather relates to questions that have been debated at different institutions about lecturer positions versus tenure track lines at the university level...

 

[cscott]

Everything seems fine at RIM headquarters... in fact we just had another internal job fair for coops to fill positions for the summer and I'm already employed for another term for the winter.

I have been thinking about how it could affect their coop program though, especially since it's so big...

I think I'm a little more worried about having no jobs around once I graduate!

 

[AcidBathSDMF]

I have no reason to think one way or another. But it seems reasonable that coops and fresh graduates would be desirable in as much as they are cheap. Why pay more for a person with higher qualifications if you can pay less, assuming the job gets done either way. Perhaps there is more to it that I don't understand, but it seems to me that the risks are outweighed by the savings in low level jobs.