Land of Bold Statistics

Last night on ABC News it was mentioned that a new poll shows only 19% of college grads in America currently have a job waiting for them after the cap and gown are taken off. In 2007, conversely, about 60% had jobs.
This unfairly paints the professional landscape as incredibly bleak and terrible. Though some sectors of the job industry, namely finance and journalism, are no doubt hurting, I believe they have severely weighted the average against other industries that are either still hiring, or even hiring aggressively.

What percentage of college grads were trying to join the finance bubble back in 2005-2007? How many were getting hired? The answer is "tons."
Whereas, engineering, health care, basic science, and a few other career paths have held relatively steady during the downturn. Medtronic recently announced ~1800 layoffs in the healthcare industry...but those layoffs were mostly blamed on stiffer competition from other companies (who have been aggressively hiring engineers, doctors, and scientists since 2003), and not blamed on the recession hurting business. The market doesn't control human health.

Journalism has taken a heavy hit as well, partially because the recession has killed advertising revenue, and partially because online content is effectively shelling the Fortress of Print. A couple years ago, the journalism "bubble" hadn't popped.

Anyway, before the newsman tells college students that their futures are dim, they should think about what they should say. Perhaps instead of "only 1 in 5 college grads has a job after graduating" they could say "only 1 in 10 business majors has a job waiting for them after graduation, but more than 50% of engineering majors find work within 3 months." Not only would this provide incentive to undecided major undergrads to pursue degrees in the basic sciences and engineering, but it would not mislead and depress the populace.


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