Firms are invading college and even high school campuses, trying to sign up workers in today's tight labor market. With the number of people in their early and mid-twenties at the lowest ebb in more than 50 years, the competition for workers is fierce.

• Some firms are even encouraging college students to leave school early and join the work force.

• At the University of North Carolina this fall, more than 350 companies clamored for space on campus to conduct interviews -- up 10 percent from the previous year, which was itself a record.

• At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., more than 480 companies scheduled job meetings on campus -- up from a little more than 300 last year.

• The consulting firm of Booz-Allen & Hamilton Inc. plans to take 250 summer intern recruits on a four-day Caribbean cruise.

Rather than submitting an application and waiting to see if they will be hired, students are picking and choosing among offers. College juniors are being offered summer internships -- and full- time salaries of more than $43,000 a year when they graduate, observers report.

Source: Kirstin Downey Grimsley, "Campus Recruiters Step Up the Search," Washington Post, December 22, 1998.