US's computer engineering grads post second-highest unemployment rate

Anthropology majors recorded the highest unemployment rate among recent graduates at 7.9%, The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows.

Majors long regarded as reliable pathways to stable careers, including computer engineering and computer science, reported relatively weak employment prospects, ranking second and fifth in unemployment rates.

Overall unemployment among recent U.S. college graduates stood at 5.6%, higher than the 3.1% rate for college-educated workers aged 22 to 65 and the 4.2% rate for adults overall.

The report defines recent graduates as individuals aged 22 to 27 holding a bachelor’s degree or higher. The analysis is based on the most recent available data from the 2024 U.S. Census.

A group of graduates from the University of Southern California, U.S. Photo courtesy of the university

Although securing jobs may be challenging for some graduates in technology fields, salaries remain among the highest once employment is obtained.

"Say a computer science grad is having a hard time finding a job in tech in the current market, but they know that if they can land one, it'll be worth their while because the pay in tech is so much higher than other industries," Daniel Zhao, the chief economist at job site Glassdoor, told Business Insider.

Computer engineering majors recorded the highest early-career pay with a median salary of $90,000, followed by computer science majors at $87,000, rising to $131,000 and $120,000 in mid-career, according to the New York Fed.