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Study Analyzes Recent Grads' Unemployment By Major
Hugh Pickens writes "A new report from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce called 'Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings: Not All College Degrees Are Created Equal' analyzes unemployment by major. It shows that not enough students — and their families who are also taking on student loans — are asking what their college major is worth in the workforce. 'Too many students aren't sure what job they could get after four, five or even six years of studying a certain major and racking up education loans,' writes Singletary. 'Many aren't getting on-the-job training while they are in school or during their semester or summer breaks. As a result, questions about employment opportunities or what type of job they have the skills to attain are met with blank stares or the typical, "I don't know."' The reports found that the unemployment rate for recent graduates is highest in architecture (13.9 percent) because of the collapse of the construction and home-building industry and not surprisingly, unemployment rates are generally higher in non-technical majors (PDF), such as the arts (11.1 percent), humanities and liberal arts (9.4 percent), social science (8.9 percent) and law and public policy (8.1 percent)."
Job opportunities are not relevant: by the time you get your degree the market will have changed anyway. Just study whatever you're interested in.
Meh. 5 years ago, in certain social settings, people treated me like a plebe and tuned me out just because I didn't have a degree. Now, there's nothing I love more than seeing college grads having to take jobs as those chumps twirling those arrow-shaped signs on street corners.
I ain't got no damn degree, and I have a solid history of decent-paying high-tech jobs with plenty of security and opportunity. I don't make an engineer's salary, but I make more than enough to be comfortable and pursue my hobbies.
I've said over and over again here that you can train tech-level employees to do most engineering work. If I were in charge of hiring, I'd take a look at past accomplishments and testing rather than hiring some out-of-touch bedwetting asshole who thinks they're royalty just because mommy and daddy paid tens of thousands of dollars for them to slave through mindless tedium. Calculus 3, differential equations, and thermodynamics just to draw parts? Really? My experience, intelligence, and work ethic will beat your piece of paper anyday. Here, hand your degree over to me, so that I may wipe my ass with it later. Now get the hell out.
-- Ethanol-fueled
Taking on massive debt is required just to get a living wage.
Extremely ignorant. The problem with most Americans is that they wont let go of luxuries, even for just a few years, because somehow we raised a generation of fuck-offs that think that they are automatically entitled, that they automatically deserve.