The drop in attendance may be a result of the view that employers have fewer jobs to offer this year, according to economics professor Bruce Sacerdote.
"Hypothetically, even if the total number of recruiters was up, people might have thought that the total number of jobs was lower," Sacerdote said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Individuals with at least a two- or four-year post-secondary degrees faced an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent for September 2009. The rate was below 3 percent in September 2008, according to recent Bureau of Labor statistics.
"Unemployment numbers have gone up. For the [2009] class, I noticed it was much harder for students to find jobs than in the Class of [2008]," Sacerdote said. "Some of my very best students [in last year's class] are still looking for a job. For some, it's taken them a month or two longer than in previous years to find a job."
Wilson said students at the fair, which featured more than 80 employers ranging from the Associated Press to Morgan Stanley, were noticeably more interested in non-profit employers this year like Teach for America and the Peace Corps.
"Instead of local non-profits, we worked to get employers with more of a national significance," Wilson said.
Some of the non-profits allow students to defer college loans under certain conditions, she said.
There was no change in attendance this year at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School career fair, according to Penn officials. Attendance at Penn's engineering fair, however, dropped 10 to 15 percent.
"We had fewer employers [at the Wharton School fair] this year due to the economy," said Robert Gannone, administrative assistant for engineering and applied science at Penn, said.
Resume drop-in sessions and cover letter workshops at the College, which occur on a regular basis throughout each term, are as popular now as they were last year, Wilson said.
Employment information for the Class of 2009 is not yet available, as Career Services typically collects data for its most recent graduated class six months after graduation, Wilson said.
