Melissa Townsend-Crow
LIBR 285
April 12, 2013
Data
Analysis
Introduction
Recently,
there was an article published on Upworthy.com that discussed which college
majors had the highest and lowest employment rates. I was dismayed to see my own major on the
wrong side of the graph, however reading the rest of the graph proved to be
more of a challenge. The study examines the popularity of 173 college majors
and the rate of unemployment of those with degrees in the fields. The top and
bottom 15 majors according to both criteria are graphed below:
Highest rates of employment:
Field: Popularity
(ranked 1-173) Employment Rate (%)
1. Actuarial Science 150 >99%
2. Pharmacology 169 >99%
3. Educational Administration 171 >99%
4. School Counselor 172 >99%
5. Geological/Geophysical
Engineering 166 >99%
6. Astronomy/Astrophysics 170 >99%
7. Teacher Education (Multiple
Levels)
86 98.9%
8. Agricultural Economics 122
98.7%
9. Medical Technologies
Technician 51 98.6%
10. Atmospheric Sciences
and
Meteorology 146 98.4%
11. Naval Architecture
and
Marine Engineering 145 98.3%
12. Environmental Engineering 144
97.8%
13. Nursing 4
97.8%
14. Public Policy 141 97.8%
15. Nuclear Industrial Radiology
&
Biological Technologies 142 97.8%
Lowest Rates of Employment:
Field Rank (1-173)
Employment Rate (%)
1. International Business 72 91.5%
2. Social Psychology 155 91.2%
3. Engineering & Industrial
Management 127 90.8%
4. Visual and Performing Arts 103 90.8%
5. Computer Administration
Management
&
Security 114 90.5%
6. Linguistics &
Comparative Language
&
Literature
90 89.8%
7. Miscellaneous Psychology 120 89.7%
8. Industrial &
Organizational Psychology 135 89.6%
9. Architecture
33 89.4%
10. Educational Psychology 173 89.1%
11. Military Technologies 156 89.1%
12. Library Science 159 85%
13. U. S. History 139 84.9%
14. Miscellaneous Fine Arts 164 83.9%
15. Clinical Psychology 168 80.5%
Interpretation of the Data
What conclusions can be
drawn from the data? What I see is that less popular fields of study have a
lower unemployment rate. This makes sense. If there are more people in a field
that there are jobs, it stands to reason that the unemployment rate for those
holding those degrees will be higher. Also, the more employable degrees seem to
require a much higher level of education in engineering, medicine and
healthcare, and the sciences. The fields of humanities, fine arts, psychology,
while more desirable/popular among students, have either fewer careers or too
many candidates, probably a combination of both. I think it would be
interesting to see where those majors not ranked among the top and bottom 15 in
each category stand.
On the surface, it would
seem that the higher unemployment rates among some of the fields of study would
be a deterrent, but if we look at the rate of employment, it is still pretty
high overall (ranging from >99% - 80.5%) which tells me that having a
college degree in any field still makes one more employable than not having a
degree.
References
Jackson, E. (2013).
Do You Know
Which College Majors Have The Highest And Lowest Employment Rates? Retrieved 04/10/13. http://www.upworthy.com/do-you-know-which-college-majors-have-the-highest-and-lowest-employment-rates-2
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