If you're using your current place of employment as headquarters for a search for your next job, be careful about leaving tell-tale evidence of your search lying around. Though it's questionably ethical to use company equipment to, for example, produce and photocopy your resume, let's face it, many people do. But if you choose to, don't leave your original resume lying on the copier's glass or resume copies in the output tray or even in the trash. As long as you're using company equipment, use the shredder, too. To be absolutely sure your current employer doesn't discover your intention to leave (and to keep your ethics squeaky clean), conduct your resume production elsewhere.

Recruiting Trends reports that employers expect to hire 19.7 percent fewer new college graduates through May 2002. The Job Outlook 2002 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 30 percent of responding employers plan to cut back on their college hiring, while 30.1 percent plan to increase their college hiring, and 39.9 percent expect to maintain their college hiring at 2001 levels. In addition, more than 44 percent of respondents plan to scale back on the number of schools they will recruit at this year.

The hiring outlook is worst for manufacturers, who expect to hire 30.1 percent fewer new college graduates. Manufacturing organizations hired an average of 156 new college graduates through most of 2001; next year, they expect to hire an average of 109, and hiring plans among service employers aren't much better.

But not all of the college hiring news is bad: Government/nonprofit organizations project a 20.5 percent increase in college hiring.

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