Job-hungry college students: Consider majoring in agriculture, natural resources or education, and get a graduate degree. Whatever you do, forget architecture. The major has the distinction of the highest unemployment rate for recent grads, at 13.9 percent.
A new study from Georgetown University lists the majors with the highest and lowest unemployment rates for recent graduates — and some might surprise you.
For example, a technology degree is valuable if you get a job inventing new technology — such as working at a Silicon Valley start-up. But it’s much less valuable if you use it to analyze information, the study says.
Accordingly, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates in information systems has jumped to 11.7 percent, while the rate for majors in computer science is 7.8 percent.
But the fate of other graduates in other majors clearly fits with the bigger picture of the economy. Architecture students have trouble finding work because the construction bubble burst in the recession. The same applies to civil and mechanical engineering.
Scheming to nab a decent job is all the more important these days with the less-than-bright economy, although the Labor Department said yesterday that America’s overall unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent in December, the lowest rate in nearly three years.
The study, “Hard Times: Not All College Degrees are Created Equal,” favors majors in technical, business and health care fields.
A graduate degree generally means an easier time finding a job and a higher salary, the study says, with no exceptions for any major. Job seekers with a higher-education diploma earn $62,000 a year on average, compared with just $48,000 for a college degree.
Still, no matter the major, going to college gives a serious edge in the job market.
The unemployment rate for recent college grads is 8.9 percent, compared to 22.9 percent for workers with just a high school diploma.
The toughest situation of all: Almost a third of high school dropouts — 31.5 percent — are jobless.
University of Arizona architecture dean Jan Cervelli said everything is cyclical, pointing out that several years ago there were two jobs for every graduating architecture major.
Plus, there are advantages for enterprising students, Cervelli told The Daily, such as skipping a few rungs on the career ladder to replace experienced professionals who’ve given up on the field.
“I don’t want to see young people making decisions about their career affecting 30, 40 years from now based on data from ’09, ’10,” she said. “That would be very sad.”