Posted on 01/04/2012 1:23:06 PM PST by SeekAndFind
College kids may choose to spend their campus days studying the glories of Plato, Shakespeare and Le Corbusier.
But, as a new study points out, there may be a steep price to pay.
Recent college graduates with bachelor’s degrees in the arts, humanities and architecture experienced significantly higher rates of joblessness, according to a study being released Wednesday by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.
Among recent college graduates, those with the highest rates of unemployment had undergraduate degrees in architecture (13.9 percent), the arts (11.1 percent) and the humanities (9.4 percent), according to the study.
The recent college graduates with the lowest rates of unemployment had degrees in health (5.4 percent), education (5.4 percent), and agriculture and natural resources (7 percent.) Those with business and engineering degrees also fared relatively well.
“People keep telling kids to study what they love — but some loves are worth more than others,” said Anthony P. Carnevale, one of the study’s authors. “When people talk about college, there are all these high-minded ideas about it making people better citizens and participating fully in the life of their times. All that’s true, but go talk to the unemployed about that.”
The analysis, which was based on 2009 and 2010 data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, comes amid an increasing debate over the value of college education as an economic investment. Over the past two decades, the average amount of debt a student takes on has roughly doubled in real terms, leading to greater scrutiny of the financial returns of college.
Carnevale and his team have also quantified the value of various majors in terms of wages. Over a lifetime, the earnings of workers who have majored in engineering, computer science or business were as much as 50 percent higher
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The architecture ranking surprises me a bit, was it a bad choice, say, ten years ago?
“...college graduates with bachelor’s degrees in the arts, humanities and architecture experienced significantly higher rates of joblessness...”
No way!
Autocad changed everything.
Everyone wants to be an architect. But the truth is, there is not much demand for them. They aren’t really very useful. A structural engineer or an autocad tech can do the job of an architect in most cases.
Most buildings nowdays are built from pre-approved plans. Hardly anyone hires an architect to build a building anymore.
Such meaningful degrees in “Diversity”, “Inclusiveness”, “Cultural Relativism”, etc. are all best-suited for joining the SEIU in a Government meaningless job.....
Architects had trouble finding jobs when I got out of school in the early 80’s.
Lots of kids want to do the artsy-fartsy thing.
Not so many people want to pay someone to do the artsy-fartsy thing.
That’s intersting, I wasn’t aware. But explains why an architect friend I know is struggling.
AutoCAD certainly has changed a LOT of stuff... but I don’t think the demand for architects has ever lived up to the imagined prospects of kids going into architecture programs.
AutoCAD certainly has diminished the demand for draftsmen, tho. I took four years of drafting in high school and what I see in AutoCAD (and similar CAD programs) completely changes the number of people necessary to churn out engineering drawings at a manufacturing company.
So Psychology majors have a lower unemployment than business, law, engineering, life sciences, and computer sciences. Interesting because that’s the degree that gets such a bad rap here at FR.
Psychologists might get a boom of work in November if we beat Obama. Remember when Kerry lost the election in 2004, stats showed an increase in people seeking mental health...
Carnevale and his team have also quantified the value of various majors in terms of wages. Over a lifetime, the earnings of workers who have majored in engineering, computer science or business were as much as 50 percent higher
Sure, a lot of these graduates are employed, but what salaries are they taking. I will take my degree in Computer Science over a degree in Education or social work any day of the week.
Tell me about it/
Architecture is in the pitts, I am just barely hanging onto my job and my firm is just barely hanging on to being in business.
And architecture in the pits (still) bodes ill for construction as a whole.
Psychology gets a bad rap because occupations in those fields tend to pay low wages. Bachelor degrees in psychology tend to lead to social work and while social workers are being sought, they are not paid much. Somewhat similar situation for teachers. Easy to get a job but you will never reach high income levels.
The person wearing the “architect” hat is the boss. Structural engineers, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, and auto cad techs all work for the “architect”.
Do you think a 22 year old kid with a degree in architecture is going to be the boss? Not gonna happen.
In the old days, a fresh young architect worked his way up to being the boss by making drawings and little models out of cardboard. These positions have been replaced by autocad techs who often have less than 2 years at a community college and they are good. No architect will be able to do their job.
Hate to tell you but sometimes artsy-fartsy can pay off bigtime. I know several people who are millionaires through the arts (mostly opera singers).
I’m not sure why freepers are so hostile to the arts. I’m in the arts and my husband and I earn a fairly good living that way. And I can tell you, it ain’t easy to be a good artist - whether visual or theatrical. A lot of work, a lot of sweat and sometimes very little payoff. But the world would be a very sad, dreary place without some of these hardworking people.
The architecture is highly related to the building boom / bust. Architects typically design NEW buildings. For home remodeling, you typically don’t need an architect but can use a drafter and engineer. Foundation repairs and oil drilling employ engineers no longer working in construction, but architects don’t have that fall back.
Psychology is also kept bouyed by the people drugging themselves into artificial acceptance or compliance. Get paid $60-260 for a visit every quarter to give prescriptions for Adderall, sleep aids, happy pills, etc.
Agreed. I also have an Arts degree and make a decent living. You just have to love what you do, be dedicated, and good. I wonder if the high unemployment rates reported have more to do with the volume of people that get these degrees compared to the others. Most of them may have gone in thinking it would be easy, when in reality, nothing is easy.
I can tell you why I have no respect for most of the supposed “artists” of today. My state mandates that 2% of any public project be spent on “art”. Consequently all public buildings, bridges, parks, etc. are all full of vulgar and ugly piles of metal and trash which is called “art” and costs the taxpayers millions of wasted dollars. It used to be an artist had to have genuine talent to sell their wares. Now “art” is a guaranteed welfare program for the untalented and unimaginative.
I really don’t think anyone with an artistic bent goes into these professions thinking it is going to be easy. I’ve been aligned with “artists” my whole life. I’ve never heard one of them say they went into it because it was “easy.” They went into it because it is their vocation. It’s a hard life.
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