Sunday, January 22, 2012

Who will employ these college graduates?

These numbers don't look good. Apparently a lot of students go to college just to keep the professors employed, because they aren't finding jobs in their fields. According to Alexander Tabbarok we are graduating too many in the humanities and not enough in the sciences to maintain a sound economy. Hmm. Maybe this is an area where "free markets" and "choice" aren't working?

In 2009 the U.S. graduated 37,994 students with bachelor’s degrees in computer and information science, less than 25 years ago; 2,480 students with bachelor’s degrees in microbiology—about the same number as 25 years ago; 5,036 chemical engineers in 2009, no more than we did 25 years ago. In mathematics and statistics there were 15,496 graduates in 2009, slightly more than the 15,009 graduates of 1985.

In 2009 the U.S. graduated 89,140 students in the visual and performing arts, more than in computer science, math and chemical engineering combined and more than double the number of visual and performing arts graduates in 1985, and 95,000 students a year in psychology, more than double the number of 25 years ago and far in excess of the number of available jobs. And everyone knows what is happening with the print media, but journalism and communications graduates have doubled since 1985!

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