Industries of all kinds are still recovering from the recession, and many graduates are leaving college only to find that their degrees are not opening all the doors they once thought they would. However, where some markets have suffered, others have thrived. Nursing, engineering, and mechanics are in high demand and students with education in those areas have less trouble than most finding employment.
However, many students do not have education in those fields, instead preferring more abstract liberal arts degrees that helped them develop communication skills rather than technical ones. Upon graduation, many liberal arts students have found themselves forced into low skill service jobs because their degrees were no longer applicable.
However, the job market might not be quite as barren as it first appeared for wayward wordsmiths and communicators. Court reporters are undergoing a similar experience as nurses are, with many retiring as boomers age and the economy continues to improve. This has led to a shortage of court reporters in many places.
“Many out of work college graduates would do well to look into this field, we have more openings nationwide than we can fill,” said Donna Cascio, court reporter in Pennsylvania. In the past, being a court reporter required extremely fast typing skills and attentiveness that has been replaced almost entirely by computer aided transcription and video technology.
Cascio goes on to say that the job is not really about legal work. It is about using those tools to help improve communication between all parties involved in a courtroom. Communicating clearly and understanding language are often core parts of a liberal arts degree, and many graduates who had previously resigned themselves to careers in the restaurant industry might find that working as a court reporter could provide them with a satisfying outlet for their education.