25 college majors with lowest unemployment rates
This is part of package on college degrees and jobless rates. Read the other story: 25 college majors with the highest jobless 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%
More on MoneyWatch:
