Employment by undergrad major.

Recently Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce released a study entitled Hard Times. The Wall Street Journal then used the study and Census data from 2010 to produce a sortable chart with undergraduate majors, unemployment rate, and salary data. It is a pretty cool chart, so take a look...  the full report from Georgetown is 20 pages, also interesting but not as quick and easy to digest.

In terms of majors with both high and low unemployment rates I did not see anything shocking. Near the top of the list in terms of unemployment are:

1. Clinical Psychology; 19.5%
2. Miscellaneous Fine Arts; 16.2%
3. United States History; 15.1%
4. Library Science; 15%
5. Educational Psychology; 10.9%

Four of these five are highly dependent on graduate course work and degrees, so it does not seem surprising that the undergraduate student may have a higher rate of unemployment. Then there is the stereotypical starving artist. Also one thing that is not clear is are they collecting data on employment in the field of their degree or any employment.

All this leads me to the conclusion that anyone just beginning a bachelors program should do research about current trends in their field as well as future projections. A good place to start is the Occupational Outlook Handbook, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As you get closer to graduation begin to read job ads for the type of job you hope to obtain once you graduate. Pay attention to skills desired, and experience required. Talk with the career counselors at your school and see if they can help set up an informational interview.