US College Majors Ranked by Unemployment: Some Really Surprising Entries

MSN Money has published an article that ranks the 34 worst college majors by the unemployment rates that their graduates will encounter in the current US job market. There are some entries that I found pretty surprising and worrisome.

MSN Slideshow

Here they are, ranked from least worst to worst by unemployment rate:

34. Philosophy: 5.0%

33. Leisure and Hospitality: 5.0%

32. Economics: 5.1% (Well, I guess the economy is beyond help anyway.)

31. Biology: 5.1%

30. Chemical Engineering: 5.2% (WTF! Are we outsourcing chemical production as well now?)

29. Communications: 5.4%

28. Nutrition Sciences: 5.5% (F*ck nutrition. We have McDonalds.)

27. Criminal Justice: 5.5% (We wouldn't want to catch too many white collar criminals.)

26. Foreign Language: 5.7%

25. Commercial Art and Graphic Design: 5.8%

24. Liberal Arts: 5.8%

23. Mathematics: 5.9% (We'll be dropping algebra from the curriculum at this rate. Oh ... wait.)

22. History: 5.9%

21. Psychology: 5.9% (Let the prison industrial complex deal with the nutcases.)

20. Industrial Engineering: 6.2% (Makes sense. China will make everything we need.)

19. Physics: 6.2%

18. Public Policy and Law: 6.3%

17. Sociology: 6.5%

16. Medical Technicians: 6.7% (Gee thanks, Obamacare!)

15. Information Systems and Management: 6.7%

14. International Affairs: 6.8% (The military will take care of that.)

13. Architecture: 6.8% (Ruins have an aesthetic appeal all of their own.)

12. Performing Arts: 6.8% (I blame YouTube.)

11. Theology and Religion: 6.8% (Islam will have little competition.)

10. Political Science: 7.2%

9. Ethnic Studies: 7.3%

8. English Language: 7.5% (English belongs in England anyway.)

7. Fine Arts: 7.6%

6. Art History: 7.8%

5. Earth Sciences: 7.9%

4. Environmental Studies: 8.5% (Nobody wants to employ anti-corporation conspiracy theorists.)

3. Mass Media: 8.6%

2. Geography: 8.8% (I blame Google Maps.)

1. Anthropology: 8.8% (Who wants to be reminded that our species will be extinct one day?)

I'm still pretty interested in working as a medical lab scientist.

Why isn't women's studies on this list?

100% ruins the average

The patriarchy!

What the hell is "Leisure and Hospitality"?

I find some of them surprising. Chemical and industrial engineering worse than philosophy? The only reason I can think of is that there are 10-100X more people getting those any of those engineering degrees than a degree in philosophy.

I have a degree in geography and...I'm not surprised at all lol!

Engineering is mess right now. Most from my class went on to become glorified construction managers, or electricians in the oil patch.

I am surprised about History, and Foreign Language seriously?

Because it would deemed too sexist :o

hotel/restaurant management

getting a decent good Job in the industry isnt hard, but will you be able to keep it?

mfw....my major isn't on that list.

Graduated in 2001 with a major in Geography and...is basically useless now. GPS smartphones, mapquest, Google Maps have pretty much ruined that field. Shocked political science, graphic design, and mass media are listed. One would think that all the kids are majoring in those fields nowadays.

at least they're making bank

I graduated in 2010 with a CIS degree although it took a year and a half for me to get a programming job, and even then I was lucky because I came in at the right time (the department I was applying for was severely short-staffed). Even so I'm surprised IT is that high on the list.

Those were among the entries that surprised me the most too. I'm guessing that they simply became "oversubscribed" because they were once hyped as qualifications that would all but guarantee high-paying jobs.

I was thinking the same thing. Their unemployment rate must be higher than 10 percent.

LMAO

Like Hotel services. Eg. Food services.

I can totally see that

Engineering degrees are very basic in the US. Most serious engineering majors go on to graduate school so that may explain some of the difficulty there.

Psychology: 5.9% - damn this is not looking good for me

yea my geography degree is useless. I'm only employed because of a technical post-graduate program I did.

Kind of surprised but it makes sense; everyone want's to be an engineer, so lot's of competition = higher unemployment. Sciences, too, to an extent.

Not surprised by things like art, geography, and the more "social sciences" like language, history, and so forth.

I feel like psychology is the intellectual's version of real estate agent; it's more of a fall-back plan than anything lol. "Oh yeah I'm going to do some non-profit work then establish my own practice and make bank" yeah good luck with that, there are soooooooooooooo many shrinks out there; I would know I see one and when I was shopping around there were hundreds of options in my little neck of the woods.

But for 100-200 dollars an hour, it's can be lucrative if you get clients.

I'm really surprised that Performing Arts has lower unemployment then some of these other fields. I guess sites such as YouTube and Twitch along with the ability to self promote one's self on the web is keeping the unemployment for Performing Arts lower than it would normally be without such avenues of expression.

@mrbojangles25: Location is key. If you can get an area that is economically stable and not over saturated, you will do amazing. There is only one therapist in my area and she always complains of getting far more patients then she can handle, and no one else to refer them.

nah they're all working at jobs like Starbucks and various restaurants while waiting for their "big break"...