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Which U.S. College Major is the Worst for Finding a Job?
Visual Capitalist ^ | 04/01/2024 | Marcus Lu

Posted on 04/01/2024 10:17:48 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Finding a job can often be a Sisyphean task in this rapidly changing modern economy. Highly sought after skills come and go, following the greater tides of technology change, marketplace behavior, and shifting consumer patterns.

After all, take a look at what’s happening in the tech world.

Education plays an important role in this job hunting business of course. And some skill sets are losing their sheen, with their practitioners having a harder time than others in securing gainful employment.

But which ones are the worst right now?

We visualize the top 10 U.S. college majors, ranked by their unemployment rate, including their underemployment rate for additional context. These figures are of recent college graduates (those aged 22–27 with a bachelor’s degree or higher) and are sourced from the New York Federal Reserve, current up to February 2024.

ℹ️ Underemployment is when workers are working less than full-time or in insufficient jobs for their training.

Ranked: U.S. Majors with the Highest Unemployment Rates

Heading the first three spots on this list are all the majors with “art” in their name.

Nearly 8% of recent Art History, Liberal Arts, and Fine Arts graduates are unemployed, with more than 50% of them underemployed.

At fourth place, 7.8% of recent Aerospace Engineering majors have not found a job—a surprising statistic since engineering is regarded as one of the more stable majors to study.

In fact from same data source, Industrial and Mechanical engineers have some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.

However, aerospace engineering jobs tend to be clustered around the big companies in an otherwise small industry, with additional requirements for security clearances. Tellingly, the underemployment rate for aerospace engineering graduates is less than 20%, which is the best out of this list.

At fifth, sixth, and seventh place are History (7.5%), English (6.6%), and Mass Media (6.3%) of which the former two have also seen a rapid decline in undergraduates in the last decade.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education; Society
KEYWORDS: career; collegemajor; education; empolyment; jobs; labor
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1 posted on 04/01/2024 10:17:48 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I’ve heard of a college which offers a major in studying
Beyonce, the singer. I believe it’s a social degree focused on culture, or lack thereof in American society.


2 posted on 04/01/2024 10:24:16 PM PDT by lee martell
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Comment #3 Removed by Moderator

To: lee martell
> ...a major in studying Beyonce, the singer. I believe it’s a social degree...

I could maybe understand a single COURSE in studying a talented singer, their influence and effect on society, etc.

But a major, with a degree? Nah, that can't be right..... if you can find a reference to the place where that's given, I'd love to know it.

4 posted on 04/01/2024 10:40:51 PM PDT by dayglored (Strange Women Lying In Ponds Distributing Swords! Arthur Pendragon in 2024)
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To: SeekAndFind

I cringe whenever I hear a college student say that they are majoring in journalism. A couple of things: Media is dead, and... We are all journalists now, including everyone on Free Republic.


5 posted on 04/01/2024 10:54:58 PM PDT by rexthecat
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To: SeekAndFind
Anything with "studies" in it, e.g. Negro Studies, Homosexual Studies, Feminist Studies.

6 posted on 04/01/2024 11:28:47 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (LORD, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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To: SeekAndFind

15 Real Majors in College (Puppet Arts, Bicycle Design and Fabrication)
https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/weird-college-majors/

Auctioneering, Bagpipe Studies, Jazz Studies and Floral Management....
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/fun-majors


7 posted on 04/01/2024 11:40:34 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls.)
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To: rexthecat
I cringe whenever I hear a college student say that they are majoring in journalism. A couple of things: Media is dead, and... We are all journalists now, including everyone on Free Republic.

Social media killed most paparazi and celebrity reporter jobs.

In the 1990s, getting personal photos and news items on celebrities was big business. Today most actors, singers, etc. have Instagram accounts on which they post their daily events. Which posts are then "reported" by low-paid staff writers who never leave their cubicles at news websites.

8 posted on 04/01/2024 11:42:32 PM PDT by Angelino97
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

Ha. Problem is they hire people in colleges to teach other students who then get a job someday teaching more students in other colleges. Every college has a women’s studies department with full staffing.

Cartoon I saw: I was in hedge funds on Wall Street but then quit to make a fortune in the poetry field.

Woody Allen in Sleeper where he died and was put in suspended animation and then awakened in the future. “Back then I was in college. Majored in Black Studies. If I had finished I could have been black by now.”


9 posted on 04/01/2024 11:45:28 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls.)
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To: frank ballenger
You gave me a good hearty laugh! Yes, Sleeper was a classic! They don't make 'em like that anymore …

10 posted on 04/01/2024 11:54:51 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (LORD, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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To: frank ballenger
Woody Allen in Sleeper where he died and was put in suspended animation and then awakened in the future. “Back then I was in college. Majored in Black Studies. If I had finished I could have been black by now.”

That's actually a quote from Woody Allen's 1971 film, "Bananas" - not from "Sleeper."

What surprises me is that that phenomenon ("Black Studies") was apparently already in existence back then, and anchored in the public's collective consciousness, back in 1971!

In the 1971 Woody Allen film, “Bananas,” a fellow employee asks Allen’s character, “What would you have been if you finished school?” Allen’s character answers, “I was in the black studies program. By now I could have been black.”

Regards,

11 posted on 04/02/2024 12:14:22 AM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The girls were in one of the following:

- psychology (at least 1/2 the graduating class)
- political science
- sociology
- liberal arts
- pharmacy
- English (and history)
- some accounting / finance
- maybe 2 math

That was decades ago, when you could get a variety of jobs that were not related to your college degree / major. Computers were in demand, and their potential had a lot of companies hoppin’ - somewhat like the current AI craze.

Seven years later, there were more girls in computer science - Chinese girls, that is. The oriental kids would descend upon the Computer Science bldg. after midnight, because the IBM punch card machines were available, and there was no line at the jobs desk.

After midnight, when I also went to the bldg., because the place was otherwise jammed from 6:00 AM to 00:00 AM every day.

BTW, everywhere in the old punch card and jobs desk days, there was some kind of John Kerry -looking dictator running that desk. All “customers” were sub-human unworthies. No helpful advice was ever given.

$25.00 per 30 minutes processing time. For more time, you begged for a chance to spend $25.00 more.

Something like that.


12 posted on 04/02/2024 12:21:43 AM PDT by linMcHlp
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To: SeekAndFind

When I started college, I asked a high-school friend who was a year older and already attending the place, “What class should I take to meet the best looking girls?” He said, “Art history.” He was right. Thirty years ago at least, Art History was the scholastic discipline of choice of the rich, beautiful sorority girl. So, yeah, it’s unsurprising that major has a high unemployment rate, but I also question how seriously those rich, beautiful sorority girl are actually seeking jobs.


13 posted on 04/02/2024 12:30:08 AM PDT by irishjuggler
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To: KC_Conspirator

“What about transgender studies degree with a minor in fisting?”

The woke degrees allow folks to go into the government created DEI shakedown and indoctrination industries. One silly footnote in the Bakke decision (the diversity comment) created a loophole through which an entire industry was created so as to keep forcing PC and woke on America through Affirmative Action and DEI heads in HR departments.


14 posted on 04/02/2024 2:36:48 AM PDT by ModelBreaker
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To: SeekAndFind

worst degrees for finding a job:

[fill in the blank] Studies ...


15 posted on 04/02/2024 2:46:52 AM PDT by catnipman (A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil)
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To: catnipman

No one mentioned underwater basket weaving. 😆👍


16 posted on 04/02/2024 3:02:13 AM PDT by Mark17 (Retired USAF air traffic controller. Father of USAF Captain & pilot. Both bitten by the aviation bug)
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To: SeekAndFind

When you have more degree titles than job titles it’s going to be a problem.

Another issue is the “must have” courses that have nothing to do with the degree you’re getting.


17 posted on 04/02/2024 4:10:46 AM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: SeekAndFind

What about my degree in Medieval Plumbing?


18 posted on 04/02/2024 4:11:59 AM PDT by laweeks (///)
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To: KC_Conspirator

Disgusting post. Reported.


19 posted on 04/02/2024 4:37:28 AM PDT by LouAvul (If America will repent of its wickedness and return to Christ, He will forgive and restore. )
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To: SeekAndFind

My son is an aerospace engineer. Actually an Astronautical Engineer, which is a sub-specialty. He’s very well employed but is currently seeking a different job. They are correct that it’s limited to a few regions, but it’s very highly compensated. I’ve been told that it doesn’t take much in extra classes to get a mechanical or electrical engineering degree if they decide to branch out.


20 posted on 04/02/2024 5:40:29 AM PDT by cyclotic (Don’t be part of the problem. Be the entire problem)
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