Be a Model, or Just a Faculty Aide

Are you male, over 5'10", with an "interesting look?"

If so, contact the Harvard Student Employment Office. You may find yourself modeling clothes for Calvin Klein at $250 a day. But even Harvard students who don't meet these qualifications are finding hundreds of job opportunities, as Cambridge suffers from what observers call the biggest job glut in years.

Martha H. Homer, who has served seven years in the Student Employment Office (SEO) as associate director of financial aid for student employment, says the employment situation for students is better than ever before, although Harvard has traditionally had one of the best college job markets in the country.

Local shopowners, however, are frustrated by the heated competition among employers desperate for part-time help.

Jim Dicato, assistant manager of Copy Quik on Mass Ave., says the store has spent $400 on "help wanted" ads this month alone, to no avail. "We almost have to beg them to work," he says. "Students don't want to make $6 or $7 an hour anymore, so keeping them on is really hard. It's been bad for about six months. Right now, we'll hire just about anyone with half a brain."

Robert E. Heroux, executive vice president of the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, says the problem is not limited to Harvard Square alone. "Every retail district in the region has the same situation," he says. "It's the down side of good times." Massachusetts' unemployment rate of about 3 percent is among the lowest in the country.

Heroux says the labor shortage has been severe for several years. "It's been almost at the edge of crisis at all times," he says. "Employers are literally scrambling and scratching for employees."

The problem is particularly critical for owners of the small, independent upscale shops which abound in Harvard Square.

Alice G. Mandis, owner of Roger's In Harvard Square, a women's clothing store on Dunster St., says she has raised her starting salary for salesmen to $5.50 an hour, the most competitive wage her business can afford. "We get killed by the high-paying specialty jobs," she says.

"We get a lot of competition from the large stores," says the manager of Sage's Jr., on Mt. Auburn St. "A small store can't afford to pay outrageous wages without taking away the profits."

One business that has felt the crunch has been Harvard Student Agencies (HSA), which provides jobs for hundreds of students each year. Edward J. Larkin '90, manager of HSA's student resources branch, says his office is filling only 10 to 15 percent of all openings, despite an aggressive publicity campaign offering starting salaries as high as $8.25 an hour. However, Larkin says he does not anticipate any long-term trouble in finding students to do moving, cleaning and other chores.

At the SEO in Byerly Hall, hundreds of job openings are listed on bulletin boards and computer terminals. SEO's own student workers have been working overtime to accommodate the extraordinarily large number of employers calling in with job listings.

In an effort to attract student workers, the SEO has recently begun listing all job openings in the house libraries, as well as on computer terminals in the Science Center.

Homer attributes the boom to a general economic upsurge in the Harvard Square area, combined with the fact that the Harvard name carries a certain cachet in the eyes of many employers.

Many local merchants blame their distress on Gov. Michael S. Dukakis's much-touted "Massachusetts miracle."

"The Massachusetts miracle means it's been difficult recently to get people to fill this kind of a job," says Ric Finnegan '65-'76, manager of Paperback Booksmith on Brattle St., which has recently had trouble finding part-time sales help.

Joseph P. Devine, assistant manager of Broadway Supermarket, which employs about 50 workers, says the labor shortage has grown progressively more acute over the last three or four years, as the state unemployment rate dropped to its current 3 percent rate in the years after the economic recession of the early 1980s. Broadway has had to raise its starting salaries by as much as $2 an hour for some positions in recent months, he says.

Heroux says employers should not expect an easing of the labor shortage any time soon. He says the Chamber of Commerce is working with businesses to promote the employment of teenagers and other groups that are traditionally overlooked.

Meanwhile, for Harvard students looking for work, the situation couldn't be better.

About 75 percent of Harvard students hold jobs, according to the SEO. The rate of increase in salaries for student workers has outdistanced inflation in recent years, while roughly parallelling tuition increases, Homer says.

"There's a lot of opportunities," says Laurence L. Lee '92, who is seeking a job through the SEO. "I was really surprised by the diversity of jobs."

Job listings posted at the SEO range from dog walking ($5 an hour) to computer programming ($25 an hour) to the Calvin Klein modeling job ($250 a day, plus an all-expenses-paid trip to Florida). Many of the openings are for University jobs in the dining halls or on dorm crew. One of the most sought-after University positions is that of faculty aide, which may entail researching early film animation, quasars or "the incidence and pattern of romantic love" for $10 an hour.

Salaries for Harvard students are considerably higher than at almost all other colleges in the Boston area and around the country. According to statistics compiled last year by the New England Association of Student Employment Administrators, wages for on-campus jobs here surpass salaries at Boston University, Brandeis, UMass, and Princeton by as much as $2 an hour. Nearby MIT, however, offers pay roughly equal to Harvard's.

Many local employers say that students who know there is no shortage of available jobs are often unreliable workers. Mandis says she has hired several student workers who quit after several days or even failed to show up at all, apparently because they had found other jobs.

Despite the wide range of high-paying jobs available, many Harvard students pass up the cash in favor of public service or career-oriented work, Homer says. She says her office often encourages students to seek paid and volunteer internships in hospitals and community centers.