The Federal Reserve Bank of New York analyzed the unemployment rates of recent graduates aged 22 to 27 who hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and found that graduates from 28 majors had unemployment rates higher than the overall average for recent graduates, which is 3.6%.
The major with the highest unemployment rate is Anthropology, at a staggering 9.4%, followed by Physics at 7.8%.
According to a report by U.S. business news website 'Business Insider', the analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is based on data from the 2023 'American Community Survey' conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, which covers 73 fields of study.
The top 5 majors with the highest unemployment rates are: Anthropology (9.4%), Physics (7.8%), Computer Engineering (7.5%), Commercial Art & Graphic Design (7.2%), and Fine Arts (7%).
The subsequent rankings are Sociology (6.7%), Chemistry (6.1%), Computer Science (6.1%), Information Systems & Management (5.6%), Public Policy & Law (5.5%), Liberal Arts (5.3%), Miscellaneous Technologies (5%), English (4.9%), Economics (4.9%), and International Affairs (4.9%).
Daniel Zhao, Chief Economist at the job platform Glassdoor, said that although Computer Science and Engineering have high unemployment rates, they are attractive because they can lead to high salaries. He pointed out that the high unemployment among these recent graduates may be due to them choosing to wait for the ideal related position as their first job.
Jaison Abel, Director of Microeconomics at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said that since mid-2022, following the decline in the tech sector after the pandemic, the demand for labor has increased, resulting in overall market weakness. He noted that graduates in Physics, Computer Engineering, and Computer Science are exactly the type that the tech industry prefers to hire, and these three majors also happened to be among those with higher unemployment rates in 2023.
Jaison Abel further pointed out that the persistently high unemployment rates among graduates of these majors are mainly due to the industries associated with these disciplines experiencing somewhat weak economic performance at the time, even though the overall economy remained quite resilient. (News source: CTWANT)