In poor job market, more grads become entrepreneurs

Across the USA, programs offer internships to grads at start-up companies; school competitions provide funds, workspace.

Graduating from college soon and no job in sight? Maybe you can create your own. Opportunities are springing up nationwide for budding entrepreneurs.

About 45 newly minted college graduates begin training in June to work for two years with small start-ups in struggling communities through a just-launched non-profit called Venture for America. Companies in Colorado and Massachusetts are offering paid summer internships to college students and new graduates through Startup America, a national initiative. A competition at Harvard, which opened an innovation lab in November, is providing funds and workspace to teams of students who have proposed ideas such as a car-sharing business in India and a restaurant offering interactive menus.

The flurry of opportunities reflects the mixed job picture for young adults. Corporations plan to hire 10% more new graduates this year compared with 2011, says a survey last month by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which tracks job hiring trends for recent graduates.

Even so, employers scaled back on hiring in March, according to the latest Labor Department data, and younger workers were hardest hit. By the end of 2011, just 54% of 18to-24-year-olds were employed, the lowest rate since the Labor Department began collecting the data in 1948, says a Pew Research Center report released in February.

“The majority of students are . . . taking what they can get,” says Clint Borchard, 30, a junior at the University of Nevada-reno, who, with classmates, plans to launch a company this summer that manufactures affordable homes powered mostly by renewable energy. The business plan, which anticipates creating 40 jobs within five years, is a finalist in an inaugural campus competition aimed at spurring regional growth. The winning team will get $50,000.

On average, entrepreneurs are about 43 when they launch their companies, says the Kauffman Foundation, a research group that studies entrepreneurship. It says lack of access to capital and concerns about paying off student loans are among barriers for younger entrepreneurs.

Efforts are underway to bring that average down. The White House hosted a forum Monday aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship among students at historically black colleges. A campaign called # Fix young america this week is pushing for student loan forgiveness, better education programs and other incentives for younger entrepreneurs. And a number of colleges, including the University of Miami, Stanford and Yale, have begun offering programs for enterprising students with big ideas.

Students “are looking at the economic environment and saying, ‘How do I make my own way? How do I follow my passion?’ ” says Doug Neal, executive director of the University of Michigan’s Center for Entrepreneurship. “Many of the students are very passionate about having an impact on the world.”