We characterize the labor market situation for recent college
graduates by looking at three possible labor market outcomes
for each graduate: unemployed, employed in a job where a
bachelor’s degree is required, and employed in a job where a
bachelor’s degree is not required. We then identify the share
of recent college graduates in each of the thirteen majors that
has experienced each of these outcomes (Chart 7). We find
that unemployment rates across majors range from 3 percent
to 8 percent. The two majors with the lowest unemployment
rates are health majors, at 3 percent, and education majors, at
just under 4 percent. Relatively low unemployment rates for
these majors likely reflect the stability of the education and
health sectors, which grew before, during, and after the Great
Recession and thus have tended to provide a growing number
of jobs during this period. At the other end of the spectrum, the
unemployment rate for architecture and construction majors
was 8 percent—a finding consistent with the lack of jobs in
housing-related sectors of the economy following the housing
bust. Liberal arts and social sciences majors also tended to have
relatively high unemployment rates, at 7 to 8 percent.