What majors students are choosing• Nursing• Liberal arts• Medical/clinical assistant• Business administration• Elementary education• Pharmacy technician• Teacher education• Surgical technologySource: Tennessee Higher Education CommissionWhat majors students aren’t choosing• General business• Management information systems• Computer and information sciences• Administrative assistant• Journalism• General education• Commercial and advertising art• Social science• Economics• Social WorkSource: Tennessee Higher Education Commission
A Tennessee Higher Education Commission study may make college students think twice about what major they pick.
For the 1,549 students estimated to graduate with performing arts degrees each year by 2018, only 213 are expected to get jobs in their field each year.
In government, only 94 jobs will open each year, leaving 1,181 students who studied political science and similar majors without work in their field. Journalism, counseling and some teaching, nursing and engineering paths also are seriously oversupplied, the commission study states.
“What we have done with this report is produced a whole host of smoking guns,” said Matt Murray, associate director of the University of Tennessee Center for Business and Economic Research, which worked with the commission to complete the research.