BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Two graphic design internships and seven interviews later, Liz Rockey still doesn’t have a job and she graduates Friday from Villa Julie College.

“I’m very concerned about the job market,” said Rockey, 21, a visual communications major at the Baltimore County school.

“My biggest frustration has been that I receive positive feedback from companies, but they say they are waiting to hear back from a client. They are hesitant about the economy, and they don’t want to hire anyone they can’t pay.”

Thousands of seniors graduate this month from Maryland universities, and many warily face the uncertainty of a troubled economy.

More than two-thirds of graduating college students in the United States expressed concern about the economic downtown hurting job prospects in a recent survey by Accenture, a management consultant.

Some graduates have settled on jobs outside their desired fields, while others decided to attend graduate school and delay entering the work world.

In addition to sending out resumes, graduating seniors should expand their networking to professors, contacts met through volunteering and even parents of friends, said Amanda Blankenship, assistant director of career advising at McDaniel College in Westminster.

Still, some predictions for the looming recession appear bright for college grads, even ones who aren’t future computer programmers, engineers, pharmacists, nurses and accountants.

Faced with baby boomers retiring, companies plan to hire 8 percent more 2008 college graduates than 2007 grads a year ago, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

Young workers also are attractive because they are technology-savvy and willing to work for smaller salaries, said Susan Ascher, president of The Ascher Group, a New Jersey provider of human resources professionals.

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com