January 1, 1970

College Majors With the Highest Unemployment Rates in 2026

Bar chart ranking college majors by unemployment rate in 2026

Here's something most college advisors won't flag until after enrollment deposits are due: recent college graduates are now unemployed at a higher rate than all workers combined. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York tracks this every quarter, and in late 2025, recent graduates hit 5.7% unemployment against a 4.2% rate for the broader workforce. That gap used to run the other direction. A degree was supposed to protect you from unemployment—not expose you to more of it.

And then there's the real shock in the data: computer engineering now sits in the top three majors by unemployment rate, right alongside anthropology and physics. Not fine arts. Not philosophy. Computer engineering.

The Full Ranking: Majors With the Highest Unemployment in 2026

Using data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW), here are the ten college majors with the highest unemployment rates for recent graduates (ages 22–27):

Major	Recent Graduate Unemployment Rate
Anthropology	9.4%
Physics	7.8%
Computer Engineering	7.5%
Commercial Art & Graphic Design	7.2%
Fine Arts	7.0%
Sociology	6.7%
Computer Science	6.1%
Chemistry	6.1%
Information Systems & Management	5.6%
Public Policy & Law	5.5%

Every major on this list sits well above the 4.2% national average for all workers. Georgetown's October 2025 "Major Payoff" report, which analyzed 152 separate majors, adds one more data point: film, video, and photographic arts posted an 11% early-career unemployment rate—the single highest in their dataset—though enrollment numbers keep it off some lists.

Why Anthropology Leads the List Every Year

Anthropology's 9.4% unemployment rate isn't new. This field has consistently topped these rankings, and the reasons have stayed the same.

The skills that anthropology builds—ethnographic research, cultural analysis, interpreting human behavior in context—are genuinely valuable. Corporate consulting firms, UX research teams, and public health agencies all benefit from people who do this kind of work well. But a gap exists between "useful skill" and "job listing that asks for it." A hiring manager posting a user researcher role may never think to search for anthropology graduates, even if they'd be an ideal match.

Sociology at 6.7% faces a structurally identical problem. Job descriptions that would benefit from sociological thinking use vocabulary like "business analytics" or "community outreach"—never "sociology major preferred." This is a hiring signal problem, not a skills problem.

Graduate degrees change the picture considerably. An anthropology M.A. heading into museum curation, consulting, or international development, or a sociology Ph.D. in academic research, produces dramatically different employment outcomes. The bachelor's degree alone leaves graduates in an awkward middle ground—enough education to feel overqualified for entry-level administrative work, not enough credentialing for the roles the major logically leads toward.

The Tech Surprise: Why Computer Engineering and CS Now Rank Among the Worst

This is the finding that genuinely caught people off guard.

Computer engineering at 7.5% unemployment is hard to square with years of career counseling advice to pursue STEM. Computer science at 6.1% tells the same story. Georgetown's CEW data shows that CS unemployment rose from 4.3% in 2013–15 all the way to 7.2% in 2021–23. That's not noise. That's a structural shift.

Two forces drove it. First, the post-pandemic tech hiring surge collapsed. Companies that over-hired in 2021 and 2022 spent the next two years cutting, with entry-level positions eliminated first. The tech industry laid off nearly 80,000 employees in Q1 2026, with almost half those cuts attributed to AI-related restructuring, according to Tom's Hardware's industry tracking.

Second, and this is the longer story: AI tools are absorbing the work that entry-level engineers used to do. A Stanford Digital Economy Study, cited in Stack Overflow's late-2025 analysis, found that employment for software developers aged 22–25 dropped nearly 20% from its late 2022 peak. Junior developers used to get hired to write boilerplate code, fix basic bugs, and build simple features. That work is now largely automated. Companies aren't cutting their engineering output—they're cutting headcount and asking senior engineers to manage AI-assisted workflows rather than mentor new hires.

The hiring manager data tells its own story:

70% of hiring managers believe AI can perform intern-level work, per a 2024 survey
37% of employers say they now prefer AI tools over recent graduate hires for certain tasks
Entry-level tech hiring fell 25% year-over-year in 2024, while applications rose

Some companies are moving against this trend. IBM reportedly tripled its entry-level hiring in early 2026, arguing that human oversight of AI systems still requires recent graduates in the pipeline. But IBM is the exception.

A computer science graduate in 2026 isn't competing only against other CS graduates. They're competing against AI tools that produce similar output for a fraction of a junior salary—and the industry knows it.

Arts and Creative Majors: Expected, But the Mechanics Matter

Fine arts (7.0%) and commercial art and graphic design (7.2%) make the list for reasons that are less surprising but still worth understanding precisely.

Creative fields are structurally freelance. Most working designers and artists piece together income from multiple clients rather than holding traditional salaried positions. Official unemployment counts people without work who are actively searching; it doesn't capture someone working 30 hours a week across three clients and earning enough to get by (barely). The 7%+ unemployment numbers for arts majors likely undercount the actual difficulty of the transition from graduation to financial stability.

Graphic design faces a specific additional pressure: AI-generated design tools have significantly reduced demand for entry-level work. Logo design, social media graphics, basic marketing materials—these were starter jobs for recent graduates. Many no longer exist in the same form. The portfolio-to-client pipeline that used to work for design graduates is now longer and more competitive.

Performing arts graduates face a different version of this. Career trajectories in performance are genuinely nonlinear, and "between roles" looks statistically identical to "unemployed" in this data.

Physics and Chemistry: The Advanced Degree Trap

Physics at 7.8% unemployment surprises people who expect hard-science credentials to guarantee employment. Chemistry at 6.1% tells the same story.

The problem is structural, not academic. A bachelor's in physics is genuinely valuable—the quantitative training translates to finance, data science, and engineering roles. But most research and laboratory positions require a master's or Ph.D. With only a four-year degree, physics graduates sit in an awkward position: overqualified for many technical support roles, underqualified for the research positions their coursework logically pointed toward.

Federal funding cuts to basic science research have sharpened this over the past few years. Fewer federal grants mean fewer research positions, which means more physics and chemistry graduates competing for private-sector roles that weren't designed with their specific training in mind. Data science absorbs some physicists. Pharmaceuticals and materials science absorb some chemistry graduates. But these are deliberate pivots that require planning before graduation, not automatic outcomes.

The honest advice for physics and chemistry undergraduates: decide early whether you're heading to graduate school. If yes, great—your outcomes improve dramatically. If not, identify your pivot field and start building relevant skills in junior year, not after commencement.

The Underemployment Number That Puts This All in Context

Unemployment tells part of the story. The Federal Reserve's underemployment rate for recent graduates hit 42.5% in late 2025—its highest level since 2020.

Underemployment means working in a job that doesn't require a college degree. A political science graduate managing a retail store. A biology major doing data entry while waiting on lab openings. A computer science graduate taking help-desk calls because software engineering roles dried up. These graduates count as "employed" in unemployment statistics, but they're not working in fields that used their training.

42.5% is a striking figure. It means that among all recent college graduates, nearly half aren't in degree-relevant work. Georgetown's CEW quadrant analysis breaks this down by earnings and unemployment together:

High earnings, low unemployment: Nursing, accounting, finance, mechanical engineering, civil engineering
Low earnings, low unemployment: Education, business management, criminal justice, physical fitness
Low earnings, high unemployment: Psychology, biology, communications, political science, arts and humanities
High earnings, high unemployment: Computer science, economics

The "low earnings, high unemployment" quadrant is where prospective students need to pay closest attention. Psychology belongs there because the field requires graduate credentials (M.S.W., Psy.D., Ph.D.) for nearly all licensed clinical work—making the bachelor's degree a stepping stone, not a terminal credential. Biology belongs there for similar reasons: without medical school, graduate school, or a pharmaceutical industry job specifically matched to your sub-specialty, employment outcomes are genuinely inconsistent.

Which Majors Have Low Unemployment (For Contrast)

The fields where recent graduates find work quickly are almost predictable once you see the pattern:

Operations, logistics, and e-commerce: 1.3% (Georgetown CEW)
Nursing and health-related fields: consistently under 2%
Civil engineering: roughly 1–2%
Accounting: under 3%
Construction management: under 2%

The common thread: majors tied to licensed professions or specific infrastructure needs have built-in demand floors. Nursing boards certify nurses. Engineers get licensed by state boards. Accountants sit for the CPA exam. These external credentialing requirements create floors that liberal arts degrees—and even non-specialized STEM degrees—simply don't have.

What This Data Should Actually Change for You

A few honest observations before you make any decisions based on this list.

Don't treat these numbers as a reason to avoid these majors outright. A 9.4% unemployment rate for anthropology means 90.6% of recent anthropology graduates are employed. The data describes a harder path, not an impossible one. My read is that the bigger risk isn't picking a "wrong" major—it's picking any major without a clear plan for what comes after the degree.

Here's a practical decision framework for students in high-unemployment fields:

Identify your target job titles now, not at graduation. Research whether your bachelor's degree alone qualifies you for those roles. If it doesn't, plan for graduate school or a targeted skill supplement before your senior year, not after.
Build portable credentials alongside your major. An anthropology major with demonstrable UX research skills is a different candidate than one without. A computer science graduate with a portfolio of deployed projects stands differently than one with only coursework.
For arts and creative fields, plan your income structure from day one. Freelance work, commissions, and part-time adjacent roles are not Plan B. They are the actual structure of those industries. Treat them that way and you'll be less surprised by graduation.
Start building industry connections in junior year. The Federal Reserve data consistently shows that recent graduates who find relevant work get there through people, not job boards. Career fairs in senior year are too late.

The question worth asking isn't "which major has the lowest unemployment rate?" It's "which major fits my strengths, and what specific steps does that field require beyond the degree itself?"

Bottom Line

Anthropology, physics, computer engineering, and the arts sit at the top of the unemployment list—but for different structural reasons. Knowing which reason applies to your field tells you what to do about it.
Computer science and computer engineering's rise on this list is real and AI-driven. The credential carries less automatic weight than it did three years ago. Portfolios and demonstrated work now matter more than they used to.
Underemployment (42.5%) is arguably the bigger problem than unemployment for recent graduates. Whether your degree leads to relevant work depends heavily on what you do beyond the degree itself.
If your major appears on this list, the right move is strategic planning—graduate school mapping, skills supplements, and industry networking starting in junior year—not switching majors.

Frequently Asked Questions

What college major has the highest unemployment rate in 2026?

Anthropology has the highest unemployment rate for recent graduates at 9.4%, according to Federal Reserve Bank of New York data. Physics (7.8%) and computer engineering (7.5%) follow closely. Anthropology has held the top spot for several years running, largely because the field's skills don't translate directly into job listings that explicitly ask for anthropology credentials.

Is a computer science degree still worth it given the high unemployment rate?

Yes, but with adjusted expectations. Georgetown CEW data shows that CS graduates who do land jobs earn around $86,000 at the median—one of the highest starting salaries across all majors. The degree still pays off financially. The challenge is that the hiring pipeline for entry-level roles has contracted sharply due to AI automation, so graduates now need portfolios of real work, not just coursework, to stand out. The degree remains valuable; it's no longer sufficient on its own.

Why do physics majors have such high unemployment if STEM is supposed to be in demand?

Most research and laboratory positions in physics require a master's or Ph.D., not just a bachelor's degree. A four-year physics degree leaves graduates technically overqualified for support roles but underqualified for research positions. Without a graduate degree or a deliberate pivot into data science or engineering, physics bachelor's graduates often struggle to find roles that match their training. The "STEM demand" narrative applies more to engineering and health fields than to pure sciences.

What's the difference between unemployment and underemployment, and which one should I care about more?

Unemployment counts people without jobs who are actively searching. Underemployment counts people working jobs that don't require a college degree—retail, food service, administrative support. The Federal Reserve tracks both, and the underemployment rate for recent graduates hit 42.5% in late 2025. For most graduates, underemployment is the more relevant risk: you'll likely find some job, but whether it's a career-relevant job depends heavily on your field and how strategically you approached your education.

Can I still succeed with a major that's on the high-unemployment list?

Straightforwardly, yes. A 9.4% unemployment rate still means that 90.6% of recent anthropology graduates are employed. The data describes a harder path, not a dead end. Students who fare best in high-unemployment fields tend to pair their major with concrete adjacent skills (data analysis for sociology, UX research for anthropology, portfolio work for arts), start networking before senior year, and either plan for graduate school or map out a specific pivot field well before graduation.

Is the high unemployment for creative majors mostly because of AI now?

AI tools are a real factor—AI-generated design has reduced demand for entry-level graphic design and illustration work specifically. But creative majors were already near the top of unemployment lists before AI became a factor, primarily because creative industries are structurally freelance rather than salaried. AI has accelerated a problem that already existed. The practical implication hasn't changed: graduates in creative fields need to plan for a freelance-plus-side-employment income structure from the start, not as a fallback after a full-time job search fails.