The last few years haven’t been easy for recent college graduates. Cast into a deep economic recession and bogged down with record levels of college debt, they have faced challenges unlike any other previous generation. So earlier this week, The Daily Beast unveiled the most useless college majors, to show which college diplomas have the least value according to job opportunity and earnings statistics.
Of course, the obvious silver lining is that certain majors are statistically more useful than the less-promising counterparts. To determine the majors that, in general, lead to less unemployment and higher earnings, and which are in industries projected to grow in the next decade, we referred to research from Georgetown University that charted two years of census data to determine the likelihood of positive financial returns in relation to college majors. We also utilized data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics about employment projections. Each of these five data points was weighted equally:
- Recent graduate employment
- Experienced graduate employment
- Recent graduate earnings
- Experienced graduate employment
- Projected growth in total number of jobs, 2010-20