The 10 College Majors With the Highest Post-Grad Unemployment
It’s a harsh world outside of university, especially if your major doesn't directly translate into meaningful employment. Maybe you were deeply interested in a particular field that doesn’t exactly bring home a paycheck. It is disheartening to find that your passion, whether it be metaphysical philosophy or maybe military history, is not a hot item in today’s job market.
Regardless of what major you chose, the job market is rough for young workers. However, having a college degree definitely helps. Recent graduates experienced an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent in September 2015. In contrast, young workers without a college degree averaged at 10 percent unemployment. While having a degree provides a significant advantage in this challenging job market, the type of degree you get makes a difference.
The data scientists at StartClass saved you the guesswork and compiled a list of the college majors with the highest post-graduate unemployment rates. We created this list using data reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. These figures, based on 2013-2014 averages, are updated annually using American Community Survey (ACS) results.
For each major, we provide the unemployment rate, the underemployment rate and the median wages for early and mid-career graduates. In this list, underemployment refers to the percentage of graduates in positions that don’t necessarily require a college degree. A recent college graduate is defined as those aged 22 to 27 with a bachelor’s degree or higher and excludes individuals currently enrolled in school. Mid-career graduates are those aged 25 to 45.
The list of majors with the highest post-grad unemployment rates is ranked from lowest to highest unemployment rates. Any ties were broken using the early career median wage.
Note: We did not include majors from the survey that are vague umbrella terms and lead to repetitive results. The majors we chose to exclude are “general social sciences,” “interdisciplinary studies,” “miscellaneous biological sciences,” “miscellaneous physical sciences” and “miscellaneous technologies.” If someone had two majors, only the first major listed was included in the data. Unless otherwise noted, definitions for fields are derived from the Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary.
Unemployment Rate: 5.0 percent
Underemployment Rate: 51.7 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $35,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $60,000
Philosophy is a discipline comprising as its core logic, aesthetics, ethics, metaphysics and epistemology.
Unemployment Rate: 5.0 percent
Underemployment Rate: 62.6 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $32,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $52,000
“Leisure and hospitality” includes majors relating to hospitality management, physical fitness, recreation and other leisure fields.
Unemployment Rate: 5.1 percent
Underemployment Rate: 42.9 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $48,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $80,000
Economics is the social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.
Unemployment Rate: 5.1 percent
Underemployment Rate: 44.8 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $31,500
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $60,000
Biology is a branch of knowledge that deals with living organisms and vital processes.
Unemployment Rate: 5.2 percent
Underemployment Rate: 17.0 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $70,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $94,000
Chemical engineering deals with the industrial application of chemistry.
Unemployment Rate: 5.4 percent
Underemployment Rate: 58.1 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $36,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $62,000
Communication studies encompasses the “comprehensive knowledge of the nature of human communication, the symbol systems by which it functions, the environments in which it occurs, its media, and its effects," as defined by the University of California, Los Angeles.
Unemployment Rate: 5.5 percent
Underemployment Rate: 54.4 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $36,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $50,000
Nutrition sciences majors, as defined by The College Board, “research the complex relationship between the body, nutrients and health.”
Unemployment Rate: 5.5 percent
Underemployment Rate: 74.4 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $33,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $60,000
Students of criminal justice explore, as The College Board defines, an interdisciplinary study of “every aspect of crime, the law and the justice system.”
Unemployment Rate: 5.7 percent
Underemployment Rate: 51.8 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $33,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $51,000
The “foreign language” category includes any majors that study a foreign language, such as Spanish or French.
Unemployment Rate: 5.8 percent
Underemployment Rate: 41.7 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $35,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $52,000
Graphic design students, according to The College Board, learn the “design and computer skills necessary to create the look for books, magazines, CD jackets, websites and more.” Commercial design involves art for advertising.
Unemployment Rate: 5.8 percent
Underemployment Rate: 58.3 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $32,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $56,000
Liberal arts are intended to provide chiefly general knowledge and to develop the general intellectual capabilities (as reason and judgment) as opposed to professional or vocational skills. Although many majors might fall under the “liberal arts,” category, some schools, such as SUNY at Purchase College, provide it as a specific major.
Unemployment Rate: 5.9 percent
Underemployment Rate: 26.3 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $42,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $77,000
Mathematics is the science of numbers and their various operations. Duke University’s Department of Mathematics explains that employers seek math students because “success in mathematics requires strong problem-solving abilities and outstanding analytical skills.”
Unemployment Rate: 5.9 percent
Underemployment Rate: 56.6 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $35,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $60,000
History is the study of the past, which can examine specific themes and explore potential causation.
Unemployment Rate: 5.9 percent
Underemployment Rate: 51.3 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $30,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $52,000
Psychology is the science of the mind and behavior.
Unemployment Rate: 6.2 percent
Underemployment Rate: 25.6 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $60,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $81,000
Industrial engineering is engineering that deals with the development and application of cost and work standards for the various operations involved in manufacture.
Unemployment Rate: 6.2 percent
Underemployment Rate: 34.2 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $50,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $80,000
Physics majors study the science that deals with matter and energy and their interactions in the fields of mechanics, acoustics, optics, heat, electricity, magnetism, radiation, atomic structure and nuclear phenomena.
Unemployment Rate: 6.3 percent
Underemployment Rate: 63.1 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $32,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $60,000
The law and public policy program offered by Indiana University Bloomington guides students to “explore how legal institutions and their leaders shape public policy.”
Unemployment Rate: 6.5 percent
Underemployment Rate: 56.5 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $33,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $54,000
Sociology is the science of society, social institutions and social relations.
Unemployment Rate: 6.7 percent
Underemployment Rate: 59.6 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $44,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $60,000
Medical technicians, according to the career-focused site Sokanu, “perform and analyze the results of complex scientific tests on blood and bodily fluids”
Unemployment Rate: 6.7 percent
Underemployment Rate: 45.3 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $43,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $70,000
The information systems management major, according to University of Maryland University College, teaches students how to “conceptualize, implement, and manage high-quality, secure information systems.”
Unemployment Rate: 6.8 percent
Underemployment Rate: 47.4 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $40,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $70,000
Students of international affairs, which is also called international relations, study the branch of political science concerned with relations between nations (primarily with foreign policies).
Unemployment Rate: 6.8 percent
Underemployment Rate: 37.1 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $40,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $68,000
Architecture is the art or practice of designing and building structures.
Unemployment Rate: 6.8 percent
Underemployment Rate: 66.5 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $30,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $47,000
The performing arts major can include the study of theatre, dance or music.
Unemployment Rate: 6.8 percent
Underemployment Rate: 50.8 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $28,600
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $45,000
Theology majors study “a particular religion or religious community. Classes focus on the religion's beliefs, teachings, history, practices, ethics, and present-day situation," according to The College Board.
Unemployment Rate: 7.2 percent
Underemployment Rate: 49.7 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $38,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $70,000
Political science is a social science concerned chiefly with the description and analysis of political and governmental institutions and processes.
Unemployment Rate: 7.3 percent
Underemployment Rate: 57.1 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $32,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $60,000
The ethnic studies major, according to The College Board, “examines[s] race and ethnicity, focusing on a comparative and interdisciplinary study of the history and culture of minorities.”
Unemployment Rate: 7.5 percent
Underemployment Rate: 51.7 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $32,200
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $55,000
The “English language” label includes the “English language and literature” and “composition and speech” majors.
Unemployment Rate: 7.6 percent
Underemployment Rate: 62.3 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $29,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $50,000
Washington State University notes that their fine arts program provides “interdisciplinary approaches to the practice of art and the study of visual culture.”
Unemployment Rate: 7.8 percent
Underemployment Rate: 58.9 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $32,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $53,000
The University of Utah’s Department of Art and Art History provides a degree program that “trains students to develop historically informed approaches to art and visual culture within the context of an interdisciplinary humanities education.”
Unemployment Rate: 7.9 percent
Underemployment Rate: 41.8 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $30,300
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $63,000
Earth science is any of the sciences (geology, meteorology or oceanography) that deal with the earth or with one or more of its parts.
Unemployment Rate: 8.5 percent
Underemployment Rate: 53.7 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $30,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $60,000
DePaul University’s environmental studies program incorporates “courses in natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, which will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of human interaction with the natural environment, emerging environmental problems and potential solutions.”
Unemployment Rate: 8.6 percent
Underemployment Rate: 56.5 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $31,200
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $56,000
The mass media program at California State University San Marcos states that it “provides students with theoretically-focused and application-based frameworks to understand media, media technology, and its influence upon domestic and global culture and society.”
Unemployment Rate: 8.8 percent
Underemployment Rate: 48.1 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $34,500
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $60,000
Geography is a science that deals with the description, distribution and interaction of the diverse physical, biological and cultural features of the earth's surface.
Unemployment Rate: 8.8 percent
Underemployment Rate: 59.1 percent
Median Wage (Early Career): $30,000
Median Wage (Mid-Career): $50,000
Anthropology is the study of human beings and their ancestors through time and space in relation to physical character, environmental and social relations, and culture.
