When it comes to selecting a major, college-bound high school students should “do their homework” so that they have a better sense of what their job prospects and expected salary will be in a given profession before they commit to a particular field of study.
So argue the authors of a new report that the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce released Wednesday titled “Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings – Not All College Degrees Are Created Equal.”
The report found that unemployment rates are much higher for recent graduates who majored in architecture and the arts—13.9 and 11.1 percent, respectively—than for those who graduated in other majors. Recent graduates who majored in education and health experienced unemployment rates of 5.4 percent, the report found.
Salary-wise, recent graduates who majored in engineering tended to make the most–$55,000 per year—while those who majored in psychology, social work and the arts tended to make $30,000 out of college.
Dr. Anthony Carnevale, lead author and director of the Center on Education and the Workforce, which put out the report with funding from the Lumina Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said it’s important for students to have access to such information so that they don’t waste time and money in college on something that’s not going to pay off.
“I think these are facts that people should be aware of,” Carnevale said of how much recent graduates in a particular major earn and what their unemployment rates tend to be. “That is, given the cost of going to college and the time it takes to get that done, it is a very substantial investment.”
“It is essentially for most people the most substantial career investment they’ll make outside the job in their lives, and they’re talking about an investment that will need to provide them with substantial income for over a 45-year career,” Carnevale said. “In the end it really does determine what you’re going to be doing after breakfast for the next 45 years.”
