Apr. 4--Matthew Wodecki, 22, a marketing major at the University of Rhode Island, is among 13,500 college seniors in Rhode Island who are about to enter the worst job market that many college career professionals say they've ever seen. Not only are seniors competing with each other for job openings, but they also must battle a wave of recently laid-off workers, some with similar educations and more experience.

"Graduation is four, five weeks away, and I don't have anything at the moment," said Wodecki, of West Greenwich, "...Very few of the people I've spoken to have [found] anything. So now it's a question of what do we do now."

Wodecki said he could move back in with his parents, but he'd prefer not to. He's considering graduate school, but said he's already taken out student loans and does not want to be burdened by more debt.

"How long do you try to sit it out? There's got to be an employer out there looking for a marketing major," Wodecki said.

Job offers, however, are down sharply from a year ago.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers, which surveys companies that employ college grads, reported that hiring projections for 2009 are down by 22 percent compared with actual hiring last year.

In the Northeast, that figure swells to 39 percent. Some sectors showed dramatic downturns. Hiring in finance, for instance, is expected to drop 71 percent from last year. Construction hiring is down 45 percent, manufacturing off 32 percent.

"This is the toughest economy I can remember," said John Nonnamaker, executive director for the office of career services at Providence College. "People remember times in the '90s when there were downturns, but this is a new animal, like nothing we've ever seen. We don't really have a model to look toward."

Campus job fairs have been attracting fewer employers this year. Salve Regina University, for example, held a career fair last Wednesday that included about 55 employers, down from about 70 a year ago. The University of Rhode Island has a career fair scheduled for Wednesday. Bobbi Koppel, director of career services, said the university expects around 80 employers, down from the usual 100 or more.

And employers who show up for college job fairs offer fewer jobs. Johnson & Wales University held a career fair on March 19 that drew a full house of 120 employers. But Sheri Ispir, director of career development at Johnson & Wales, said that instead of the 600 job interviews the fair usually generates, this year employers interviewed about half that many students.