College majors with lowest unemployment rates

[Will E Worm]

25 college majors with lowest unemployment rates

Will I get a job when I graduate from college?

That's a huge question that college students are asking themselves, now perhaps more than ever. Students who select more marketable college majors are going to increase their chances of landing a job.

The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce used U.S. Census Bureau statistics to tease out the unemployment rates for 173 college majors. I looked at the 100 most popular college majors and pulled out the 25 majors with the lowest unemployment.


College majors with lowest unemployment rates


1. Medical technology technician 1.4%
2. Nursing 2.2%
3. Treatment therapy professions 2.6%
4. Medical assisting services 2.9%
5. Agriculture production & management 3.0%
6. Industrial production technologies 3.1%
7. Pharmacy 3.2%
8. Communications & disorders sciences 3.3%
9. Elementary education 3.6%
10. Special needs education 3.6%
11. Miscellaneous education 3.7%
12. Mechanical engineering 3.8%
13. High school teacher 3.8%
14. Theology & religious vocations 4.1%
15. Management info systems & statistics 4.2%
16. General education 4.2%
17. Health & medical administrative services 4.3%
18. Transportation science & technologies 4.4%
19. Finance 4.5%
20. Physics 4.5%
21. PE/health education 4.5%
22. Criminal justice and fire protection 4.7%
23. PE/Park & Recreation 4.8%
24. Civil engineering 4.9%
25. (tie) Electrical engineering; environmental science; math 5%



Most employable majors

Want more job security? Health-related fields account for 20% of the college majors with the lowest unemployment.


Education represents 24% of the list -- but you could argue that this is misleading since teaching is broken up into so many specialties (such as elementary, special needs, etc.). Research over the years, by the way, has suggested that education is the easiest college degree to earn.


In the top 25 list of college majors, there are several majors requiring intense math skills, such as engineering, finance and physics, that round out the list.

Some of the majors that didn't make the list of the 100 most popular majors also enjoy low unemployment. In fact, if you're an astrophysicist or geophysics engineer, you apparently don't have to worry at all about finding a job. Here are five less popular majors, all requiring advanced math skills, that enjoy low unemployment:


Astrophysics/astronomy 0%
Geological and geophysics engineering 0%
Physical science 2.5%
Geosciences 3.2%
Math/computer science 3.5%

Article

 

[gunslingingbird]

Music is nowhere to be found on that list. No wonder I'm a fucking stagehand...

 

[Will E Worm]

Music is nowhere to be found on that list. No wonder I'm a fucking stagehand...

Because music is not a practical job. Even when they make it they are not that happy.

Britney Spears is sad. There's a video on youtube.

The Rolling Stones can't get any satisfaction.

Kane West is never happy.

 

[gunslingingbird]

I meant music as a real discipline, not in the commercial sense. 12 years of classical guitar training qualified me to handle gear and push boxes.

 

[Will E Worm]

I meant music as a real discipline, not in the commercial sense. 12 years of classical guitar training qualified me to handle gear and push boxes.

Then start a youtube channel and see what happens.

 

[lurkingdirk]

Wow, you're a jerk.

Music is a viable industry. Lots of people have productive music industry jobs. GSB bemoans his lot in life, and you just make a passing, douche like comment.

Well done. YOu continue to exactly fulfill the expectations of you.


To be more accurate, there are plenty of good jobs in the music industry. It is a hard time in the US right now to be in any of the humanities - philosophy, history, music, etc. funding is being cut, people are more competitive, and on and on it goes. This doesn't make these fields less valuable, it makes the American government stupider for not seeing the value in these fields.

 

[BlueBalls]

You can get a degree in "Fire Protection"? I think I'd rather the David Beckham studies degree to be honest.

Anyway: "Theology & religious vocations" looks like I made the right choice. High employment rates and all of the little boys I could ever hope for.

 

[GibbsGrad2002]

I majored in Criminal Justice Administration

 

[D-rock]

I have a hard time seeing education doing so well with budgets being slashed or even crippled for schools around the country. Maybe if it counts people that have a job in some other area than what their degrees are for.

Where I have went to high school they don't even have half the budget they had way back when I was in it. That's not even counting inflation. Adjusting for inflation that they might have closer to a third of the money and resources they had back then. Similar things are happening around the country.