College graduates struggle to find jobs in a tough economy.

According to a study released by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, in May 2011, only 56% of college graduates in 2010 were able to find a job after graduation, as compared to the 90% of graduates from the 2006/2007 class. This statistic alone shows the sign of how hard economic times adversely affect the new college graduates that are entering the type of job market where even experienced workers are having a hard time finding a job—causing some white collar professionals to turn to bartending and waitressing to make ends meet.

Get Your Foot in the Door before Graduation

One of the key elements to make sure that you have a job in your career field is to plan ahead of time. One or even two years before you graduate, look for internship opportunities and part-time work with firms, businesses, organizations and companies in your field of study, or in the line of work you are interested in pursuing. When you intern or work with a company while you are finishing your studies, and you show what a great asset you can be to the company, you are likely to receive an offer for full-time work as you near graduation.

In other words, do not wait until you are about to graduate or after you have already graduated to scramble to look for work. Especially in a tough economy, the longer lead-time you have to start preparing for your post-graduation work, the better your chances are of setting up the process you need to go through to land a full-time position when graduation time does come.

Go Back to School

It may sound ironic or as if it is a procrastination tactic, but some careers truly require a higher education degree, such as a master’s degree or Ph.D., to find a job. For example, psychology majors are finding that an undergraduate degree in this field is simply not enough to land them a job in their career field. Not only does going back to school, or continuing your education, allow you to obtain the degree you need to start working in your field, but it also puts you back in the job market in what is hopefully a better economy and as a more marketable job candidate.

Be Persistent

Finding a job is, well, a full-time job. Even if you have to take on a job that’s not what you expected to be able to pay your bills, continue to look for a job. In other words, do not just take a job to make enough money to make ends meet, get stuck in a rut and expect the job of your dreams to just land in your lap. If it means working full-time, 40 hours a week at a job, but coming home each night and spending two hours looking for jobs in your field, sending out resumes and contacting companies that you want to work for (even if they don’t have jobs posted) to market yourself as a possible candidate, then do it.

While you will receive rejection emails, letters and no’s on the telephone, do not allow this to discourage you. Persistence does pay off.

Follow Your Entrepreneurial Spirit

When you cannot find a job in your career path, you can create a job in your career path. You can go through the process of officially opening your own business. You can also work side gigs while working a full-time job. Many part-time gigs turn into full-time gigs, depending on what the line of work is and how hard you work at turning the side gig into full-time work.

For example, a journalism or marketing graduate may aspire to become a full-time writer. Scour websites, such as Craigslist.org, Guru.com and eLance.com, to find and bid on writing gigs. First, landing some of these gigs helps you to bring in extra money. More importantly, however, it also helps you to build up a pipeline of work and even land regular clients to the point where one day your side gigs turn into your full-time gig—and doing what you set out to do in the first place.

Go Where the Jobs Are

While the entire country is affected by the downturn in the economy, there are states, cities and regions that have tons of jobs, but don’t have enough candidates to fill the positions. Do your homework to find out where the jobs are and go after them. Landing a job in a different city doesn’t mean you have to stay there forever, but it does provide you with the opportunity to start your career and apply for positions in the places where you want to live in the meantime.

Spartanburg Community College enrolled more than 1,000 new students between 2008 and 2009, reports the Spartanburg Herald-Journal.

College officials told the news source that overall enrollment at the school has increased by 22 percent, and that the institution recently earned the honor of the 15th fastest growing school among nearly 250 community colleges that serve between 5,000 and 9,999 students.

“The national recession has driven younger students to community colleges because our tuition is more affordable than that of four-year colleges and universities,” Para M. Jones, president of the school, told the news source “The result is that the average age of our students has gone down from approximately 28 to 26 years of age.”

They added that the school’s online course offerings are contributing to the overall success of the college. Currently, the school offers more than 100 online courses as well as internet-based associates degree programs and certificates. These web-based options allow the school to reach individuals outside their normal target area and entice students from across the country to enroll.

Similiarly, Terra Community College has made significant strides in its online course package. The Ohio-based school is offering more online classes to help capture more students who are seeking distance learning options.

In an effort to attract more students in its virtual programs, the school is now offering 93 online classes with nearly 2,000 students attending web-based classes last fall, reports the Port Clinton News Herald

“[Our] students are very busy and want flexible classes,” Nancy Sattler, dean of liberal arts and public services at Terra Community College, told the news source.

School officials added that the college is also offering more hybrid courses through which students will complete certain parts of classes online and on-campus. Since these programs became available, the institution has seen an increase in enrollment from 57 students in the fall 2008 semester to 678 in 2010. These numbers represent record highs for the institution.

According to the Pew Research Center, community colleges enroll nearly half of all U.S. graduates, totalling more than 6 million students.

Enrollment in high demand professions and online courses increase for DeVry

Other schools are seeing a boost in enrollment in degree programs that feed into in-demand professions, such as nursing. For instance, officials from DeVry Inc. recently experienced significant growth in enrollment n 2010 in its web-based and healthcare programs, reports BusinessWeek.

Officials told the news source that enrollment in its Chamberlain College of Nursing grew by 42 percent in 2009. Furthermore, nearly 21 percent more students registered for online courses at the school, while nearly 2,500 more were attending graduate classes as compared to the previous year.

According to the 2010 Sloan Survey of Online Learning, nearly 5.6 million students from more than 2,500 colleges and universities in the U.S. were enrolled in a web-based class in the fall semester of 2009.

Ashford University graduates record number of students in 2010

Finally, Ashford University, an online school, recently reported that 98 percent of the 8,268 graduates in 2010 earned their degree online.

“In 2010, we graduated 3,000 more students than in 2009,” said Jane McAuliffe, president of Ashford University “The 2010 graduating class is by far the largest in Ashford University’s 92-year history.”

College officials said that more than 5,000 students graduated in 2009.