For many students, "recession," "unemployment," "cutbacks" and "lay-offs" may be only words they read in the newspapers. But as students search for summer jobs, newspaper stories about the declining economy become more real. The unemployment rate has jumped almost four percentage points since last spring and Harvard students, like students everywhere, are feeling the squeeze.

A few students will simply discover that at the firms where they apply for work the catch-word is firing, not hiring. Others will feel the effect of the recession less directly. The Massachusetts student who reapplies for his or her summer lifeguard job will be told that seasonal job applications are now channelled through the Division of Employment Security, which gives preference to veterans, minorities, and unemployed heads of households. The student will lose out.

Perhaps trying closer to home, the student will find that the Student Employment Office (SEO) is not even holding summer job signups for Buildings and Grounds jobs. There will be only "zero to ten" jobs with B&G this summer, rather than last year's 65, Charles O. Honnet, SEO's assistant director said this week.

The reason for the drop is that there will be fewer vacationing B&G workers for students to replace this summer. In order to save money B&G workers were encouraged to take their vacations during the Christmas recess when some buildings were closed to save energy, William A. Lee, B&G personnel administrator said this week.

Even when the summer-job hunter is not competing with fulltime workers, landing a job will not be easy. Betsey Remage, OGCP health careers counselor, said that inflation and fewer Federal and foundation grants to hospitals and universities for scientific research means that "there is less and less fat for special programs" for students.

But, job were also "very tight" last summer, Remage added, so that while today's market is significantly worse than five years ago the only difference between this year and last may be that more students are now interested in tracking down jobs that pay. And the number of these jobs has certainly not increased.

With government jobs the statements just as tough.

Charles R. Ruemelin, OGCP government careers counselor, this week described a year-to-year shrinkage in the public sector job market. But Ruemelin can't talk specifies yet because when money is scarce governmental offices delay for as long as possible making decisions about reductions of cuts in internship programs. If Ruemelin calls now to find out about a program, he is told that the program has no coordinator because, of a hiring freeze, and that the budget for the program is not yet set.

Ruemelin knows that if there are no internship coordinators, there may not be anyone to lobby for internship program funds. But he still cannot get definite answers about programs' futures because. "It's a very unpopular thing for someone to say we won't do a program."

Ruemelin said he thinks administrators "let programs hang" as long as possible, so that students will look for jobs elsewhere and remove the pressure on the government offices to hire them. Come June 15, programs may hire a few of the people who have not found other work. Through this delaying tactic, "some people will still have jobs, and the agency can say they've still had a program." Ruemelin concluded. Nonetheless, many students will have been left out.

Internship programs designed for only minority students are at least as scarce as jobs in health and government. OGCP counselor William D. Wallace has a folder tucked away behind his desk filled with old brochures of programs in the health field which no longer exist.

Applications to minority programs which will run this year have soared. More than twice as many students as last year applied to work in business firms through the NAACP's Positive Program, Charlotte M. Nelson, the program's director of employment services, said last month. But so far the program has found only half as many spots for applicants as last year because employers cannot afford to pay interns' salaries.

Applications to the Summer School's health careers program for minority and disadvantaged students, have also doubled this year, even though students will no longer be getting the stipends they formerly received. Wallace, the coordinator of that program, said more students may be applying to the program this year because it guarantees them something to do this summer if they don't get a job.

But Wallace emphasized that summer jobs are not only a minority problem, "Jobs for minorities and women have always been a problem, because these groups did not have as much access," but now, he said, "it's become a problem for everyone."

If earlier and more numerous inquiries at Harvard's employment services this year are good indications of student concern. Wallace is right. Remage also reports that more people than last year visited the OGCP as early as semester break in search of a summer job. Honnet, too, noticed that students came in earlier this year to inquire about summer employment.