Friday, August 15, 2025

Repeated use of this NY Fed report really bothers me

 Among many offenders, this New York Times article about new college grad unemployment

Among college graduates ages 22 to 27, computer science and computer engineering majors are facing some of the highest unemployment rates, 6.1 percent and 7.5 percent respectively, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That is more than double the unemployment rate among recent biology and art history graduates, which is just 3 percent.

It's really disappointing to me that no one clicks through the website and scrolls down to see this fine print:

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (IPUMS).

Notes: Figures are for 2023. Unemployment and underemployment rates are for recent college graduates (that is, those aged 22 to 27 with a bachelor's degree or higher), and median wages are for full-time workers with a bachelor's degree only. Early career graduates are those aged 22 to 27, and mid-career graduates are those aged 35 to 45. Graduate degree share is based on the adult working-age population (that is, those aged 25 to 65) with a bachelor's degree or higher. All figures exclude those currently enrolled in school. Data are updated annually at the beginning of each calendar year.

I think it's important to note that the numbers are from 2023, which means that the numbers are of somewhat less relevance (although probably still the best available numbers) compared to the spring grads of 2025. In addition, if you're a grad between ages of 22 and 27 in 2023, you have COVID (20-21) right in the middle there. In addition, for all of the people who are pointing out that history majors have better unemployment (4.6%) than computer science majors (6.1%), I'm going to point out that I'd take my chances to get a $80,000 median salary (CS) rather than a $45,000 one (history.) 

After watching the numbers for over 10 years, I think it is amazing that reporters and commentators still can't get this stuff down pat. A shame

(Let's also not forget that this is American Community Survey data, which is pretty darn good, but still, how many new history grads are in that pool of ~3 million Americans surveyed?) 


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looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20