Graduates prepare for weak job market - Trevor Stokes, Times Daily

As the graduates in robes and mortar boards walked into the standing-room-only Flowers Hall auditorium, Thomas Fraise shook hands with his basketball coach, Cord Wright, and joked, "I go from being my momma's baby to unemployed." About 365 students were expected to graduate from Northwest-Shoals and 700 from UNA. Students are either working jobs in unrelated fields for now, pursuing further study or planning to pound the pavement in search of work.