Anthropology, physics, and computer engineering grads have had a rough time in the job market.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York analyzed the unemployment rates of recent college graduates, defined as 22- to 27-year-olds with a bachelor’s degree or higher, by major. The analysis used data from the Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey covering 73 majors and subject groups.
Twenty-eight majors had unemployment rates above the overall 3.6% rate for recent grads. The kinds of majors with the highest unemployment rates were mixed, with several related to arts, technology, or science. Recent anthropology graduates had a rate of 9.4%, the highest rate, followed by physics at 7.8%.
Recent computer engineering and computer science graduates also had high unemployment. Still, employed graduates in the two computer-related majors were more likely to be working in jobs that typically require a degree, especially compared to anthropology. They also tied with the highest median wage for early-career graduates, alongside chemical engineering, at $80,000, and had six-figure medians for mid-career graduates.
Daniel Zhao, lead economist at job platform Glassdoor, told Business Insider that computer science and engineering are still appealing because of the high pay they could lead to.
“When you look at the higher unemployment rate but the lower underemployment rate, new grads in computing fields are likely holding out, waiting for that first job in the field, because they know how rewarding it can be,” Zhao said.
Jaison Abel, the head of microeconomics at the New York Fed, told BI the tech sector tends to hire many recent college graduates and showed some overall weakness from mid-2022 into the following year, after higher demand for workers following the pandemic recession. He said that the tech sector does tend to hire grads who studied physics, computer engineering, and computer science — three of the majors with relatively high unemployment rates in 2023.
Abel said he thinks “a good chunk of the elevated unemployment at that time for recent grads” in those three majors was because they “just happened to be a part of the economy that was experiencing a bit more weakness than other parts, even though the economy overall was still quite strong.”
The job outlook for science graduates was mixed. While physics and chemistry both had relatively high unemployment rates, earth sciences had an unemployment rate of just 1.5%. Biology had an unemployment rate of 3%, below the overall rate.
“For the pure sciences, the types of jobs you can get do tend to be a little bit more constrained than some of the engineering fields,” Zhao said.
He added science jobs tend to rely on federal funding. While the unemployment data is about 2023, Zhao said the dependence on federal funding is “certainly a concern moving forward, as the Trump administration has pulled back on funding for research and science.”
The job market can still be hard for new job seekers
US job openings have slowed dramatically since the post-pandemic boom, and there are fewer openings per unemployed person. The unemployment rate for recent 22-to-27-year-old college graduates with a bachelor’s degree or higher climbed to 5.8% in March, widening the gap with the overall unemployment rate.
“It’s hard to say exactly how the individual majors will shake out,” Abel said about today’s job market. “All else equal, if you’ve just got a cooler job market with less hiring, that’s going to equate to a higher unemployment rate, especially for recent grads, because recent grads are really on the margin of the labor market.”
Recent graduates could be having a tougher time getting a job, depending on where they’re applying.
“The job market in tech has been soft for entry-level workers, as many tech companies have slowed down hiring or even turned to layoffs,” Zhao said.
Job postings in the software development sector on the job search platform Indeed have recently been growing, but they are still far below the opportunities during 2022 and even pre-pandemic February 2020. Job postings for the scientific research and development sector have also slowed from their March 2022 peak.
Zhao’s advice for new graduates looking for a job is to connect with their networks, such as alumni and family, and research who is still hiring.
“There is a lot of flexibility with which career path you can pursue because entry-level workers, usually, the skills are more generalizable across industries or across occupations,” Zhao said.
Are you a college graduate who is job searching, or did you get a job without a college degree? Reach out to this reporter to share your story at [email protected].
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