Nineteen-forty-nine's college graduates who are still looking for a job may have a harder time finding it than any graduating group since before the war, a government official warned this week.

At the same time, however, a conflicting report, touting a relatively bright outlook for prospective wage-earners was issued by the Northwestern National Life Insurance Company.

Diploma holders seeking employment will have to buck against fever jobs and a bumper crop of graduates, Ewen Clague, Federal Commissioner of Labor Statistics, said in a statement yesterday.

Clague estimated that there will be about 320,000 college and 1,200,000 high school graduates in search of steady jobs during the next few months. Since college enrollment has been increasing steadily since 1945, there will be more competition this year than ever before for professional and executive jobs, he said.

The Rosy Side

In contrast to Clague's analysis, a report released this week by the Northwestern National Life Insurance Company maintains that, after a slump in February and March, the employment situation for college material is now considerably brighter.

The report, based on an annual survey made by the company, called attention to the fact that starting salaries the nation over are holding at last year's record levels, and that the demand for college trained employees is growing rather than shrinking.

Dartmouth Report Cited

The Northwestern report pointed out that a recent statement by Dartmouth's School of Business Administration observed that officials there "were disturbed by the February-March slump in job openings, but the subsequent pick-up has wiped out our losses."

Approximately half the colleges that responded most recently to the survey have reported that their record of job offers to graduating seniors to date has been equal to or slightly above the 1948 levels.

According to the insurance company survey, the prevailing rate of starting salary offered business and liberal arts graduates is from $200 to $275 per month, with the figures for engineering students running slightly higher.