Unemployment rates are falling for everyone but journalism grads

Is going to college a good investment?

There is a broad consensus among experts that, on average, it is.

But as soon as you begin scrutinizing the question in any detail, you quickly notice lots of things can impact the returns on college degree spending.

The newest datapoint comes from the Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.

In the report, Center researchers Anthony Carnevale and Ban Cheah looked at unemployment rates by majors for recent college grads, and found that it’s falling for almost everyone.

But not recent journalism grads.

This group, defined as 22- to 26-year-olds with journalism degrees, now has an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent, and counting. Other majors actually have higher unemployment rates (architects are highest at 10.3 percent), but journalism’s continues to climb.

The unemployment rate is also still rising for journalism majors with a recent grad degree, defined as 24- to 34-year-olds. Their unemployment rate is now 5 percent.

“Hard times are becoming better times for most college graduates, though how much better varies widely among college majors,” the report says.

For experienced journalism grads, the unemployment rate was either falling or unchanged. Experienced workers are 35-54 years-old, experienced graduate degree holders are limited to 35-54 years of age.

Earnings for all journalism grads are also falling. For a recent journalism grad, median earnings now stand at $34,000, compared with $36,000 in 2010. And for experienced college grads they are down to $63,000 from $65,000.

The Center also found rising unemployment rates for recent graduate degree holders who majored in law and public policy as undergraduates.

Finally, they found that people who majored in architecture and social science, a field that includes things like political science, economics, and anthropology, actually have higher unemployment rates than individuals with no college degrees.

Art, law, psych, and humanities majors were lower, but not by much.

Overall, the Center says, unemployment rates are declining for most recent college graduates, and their earnings advantage over high school diploma workers remains steady, though this is due in part to declining earnings among the latter group.

Rob covers business, economics and the environment for Fusion. He previously worked at Business Insider. He grew up in Chicago.