Unemployment rate for college grads

The Democrats and their PR firms -- CNN, NY Times, LA Times, etc. -- are so busy telling us about Obama's beautiful, "progressive" plans for decreasing the unemployment rate (raising taxes), they have hardly mentioned the 4.3% unemployment rate for college grads. International Business Times, Sept. 2011:

However, if one examines the August BLS jobs report closely, one finds something interesting -- the unemployment rate for college graduates (that is, those holding at least a Bachelor’s degree) is only 4.3 percent. Moreover, this figure has slowly declined from 5.0 percent in August 2010.

Or, to put it another way, more than 95 percent of college graduates in the Unites States are working – in the aftermath of one of the worst recessions in living memory.

Not all grads are created equal, however. A number of degrees have high unemployment, and some have no unemployment. That's right, no unemployed people. From Yahoo News:

1. Actuarial Science—0 percent

2. Astronomy and Astrophysics—0 percent

3. Educational Administration and Supervision—0 percent

4. Geological and Geophysical Engineering—0 percent

5. Pharmacology—0 percent

6. School Student Counseling—0 percent

7. Agricultural Economics—1.3 percent

8. Medical Technologies Technicians—1.4 percent

9.Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology—1.6 percent

10. Environmental Engineering, Nursing, and Nuclear Industrial Radiology and Biological Technologies—2.2 percent

Curiously, Gender Studies is not in the top ten, nor in the top 25. Now, why could that be? Here's the Gender Studies description at Indiana University:

Gender Studies is a transdisciplinary department engaging students in the study of gender and the intersection of gender with other substantive categories of analysis and identity, including race, sexuality, class, disability, and nationality. Our curriculum offerings push students beyond commonsense accounts of gender to examine its complex constructions in our different historical epochs, in various cultural arenas, and varying global processes. Gender Studies engages with a wide variety of innovative approaches and methodologies, broad in reach - yet unified through a critical angle of vision.

Whew! I was relieved to see that the program is "unified through a critical angle of vision." No doubt it would be far less without that.

San Francisco State University has its own, unique take on "sexuality studies":

The mission of the Department of Sexuality Studies is to " advance multidisciplinary teaching, research, and advocacy in sexuality studies, sexual literacy, well being and social justice." We provide students with knowledge about processes and variations in sexual cultures, sexual identity and gender role formation, and the social, cultural, historical, and ethical foundations of sexuality, intimate relationships, and sexual health. The department has a long commitment to community building and focuses on issues of social justice and sexuality, including the impact of factors of social inequality - such as poverty, racism,marriage equality and homophobia - upon sexual well-being and sexual health across the lifespan.You can actually get a Master of Arts in Sexuality Studies at SFSU.

I wonder if Ford Motor Co is looking for job candidates with this degree? Social responsibility would be helpful in assembling the new Fusion model.

Racial studies is another area that didn't make the top 25. Here's UC Santa Barbara's Center for New Racial Studies:

The Center for New Racial Studies (CNRS) at UCSB is a developing "think tank" that focuses on the dynamics of race and racism in the 21st century. We are committed to revitalizing racial studies on our campus and beyond. We are an affiliated group of faculty from the social sciences and humanities who work on racial issues from a wide range of disciplines: we have among us historians, literary critics, musicologists, sociologists, political scientists, and specialists in education. We study race from very different vantage points: global, national, local, and experiential.

The "Center" is giddy about Obama's presidency, using words like "reactionary", which is fairly standard fodder in the various communist movements, and takes the opportunity to slam Nixon, Reagan, and Bush:

We view Obama's triumph as both a moment of closure and a great opening. On Nov. 4, 2008 the American people not only chose to end the epoch of reactionary rule that began with the election of Nixon, consolidated under Reagan, and only met its demise under Bush II; they also recognized that the age of "neoliberalism" was at an end. This epoch -- characterized by state-led expropriation and violence against the most vulnerable social groups both at home and across the globe -- has produced a wide-ranging crisis: economic, ecological, sociopolitical, and indeed constitutional.

I thought college was a place to learn something useful, not to find out about how Republicans are bad. Maybe we, as a nation, should focus more on working than whining about anything that isn't far-left.

There are only a few jobs a Gender Studies or Racial Studies grad can get (which use the knowledge): university professor teaching same, NPR "analyst", and leftist activist. Here's the list of degrees with the highest unemployment rates. Avoiding anything with "psychology" in the name is a good plan for students.