For educated workers, things are looking up

In June, Kathleen Reynard landed a job at a Needham firm as an accounting manager, earning 20 percent more than she made at her old job. Still, the headhunters keep calling, a sure sign, she says, that the economy is turning around.

``There are a lot of opportunities in finance right now, and the recruiters want to know if I know of other finance professionals," said Reynard, 42, of Framingham.

US economists and others who track the workforce agree the job picture is looking up for educated workers in many fields. The unemployment rate among educated workers 25 and older with at least a four-year college degree dropped to 1.8 percent last month, the lowest jobless rate for such workers since February 2001, when unemployment fell to 1.6 percent, says Denis McSweeney , New England regional commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As a result, wages are slowly beginning to rise for such workers, evidence that employers may be having a tougher time filling vacancies, according to John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas , a Chicago outplacement firm that tracks workplace trends.

``We're seeing solid job gains in higher paying construction, financial, professional service, healthcare, and information services, and we are beginning to see increases in wages," he said.

Salary.com , a Waltham firm that tracks compensation, says exempt professionals in information technology will likely see a 4 percent wage hike in 2007, up from 3.8 percent this year. The wages of nonmanagerial professionals in the same field will increase to 3.9 percent, up from 3.7 percent in 2006. Wages are expected to increase 4.1 percent next year for accounting professionals.

But while college-educated workers in many industries are in demand, better technology and improved production continue to make it hard for employees who lack degrees to find decent jobs. And even some with college degrees are being locked out because they are in fields where demand is low.

Filling job vacancies in the professional and technical job category has been difficult for about four out of 10 employers, reports the Bureau of National Affairs Inc., a private publisher in Washington, D.C., that tracks workplace trends. Only 28 percent of employers of service and production workers reported unfilled jobs.

Andrew Sum , director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University , agrees that the job market has been strong for experienced college-educated workers, but says their employment rate is still about two points below what it was five years ago because job growth hasn't been strong enough. In all, he said, 78 percent of those with a master's degree or higher are employed compared to 76 percent of workers with a bachelor's degrees. For high school graduates, only 61 percent have jobs.

Accountants such as Reynard are in demand because of corporate accounting requirements stipulated by the 2002 Sarbanes Oxley Act, which was designed to deter and punish corporate accounting fraud.

``But there is still a lot of variability by occupation and field of study," said Sum. ``Registered nurses, for example, are virtually all employed. But job prospects for professionals in the computer field haven't come back fully. And for people in the liberal arts, it is not as easy to find work as it was six years ago. So, there is definitely a problem for certain professionals."

Hiring also is mixed among engineers. Chemical engineers are doing well, but industrial and mechanical engineers are facing tough times as the manufacturing sector sheds jobs.

Dennis Geller , 59, of Brookline, was vice president of research at an Internet start-up firm that did technical analysis when the dot-com industry crashed. Unable to find work after a year-long search, he began teaching mathematics in 2002. Geller, who holds a doctorate in general systems theory and electrical engineering, eventually found a job with a Woburn firm about 13 months ago.

``The company was about to make a transition from being small and comfortable to a growth firm," said Geller. ``This company has been recruiting for a while. My understanding is that there are not a lot of people out there, and we were not getting that many middle- or senior-level people."

Sum said demand is closely tied to geography. States like Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, Nevada, and Florida as well as parts of New Hampshire are hiring briskly. Hiring in Massachusetts is up in selected areas such as health care, high-tech services, biotechnology, accounting, and technical research, with far less hiring in manufacturing, real estate, and social services.

Diane E. Lewis can be reached at dlewis@globe.com.