Demand Comparison Between Art History Majors and Computer Scientists
Obtaining a computer science degree once seemed like the clearest path to a steady job and a high starting salary. By contrast, art history degree holders, as recently as 2022, could expect some of the highest rates of unemployment among recent university graduates.
Now, it seems, the tables have turned.
According to data released this year by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, recent art history graduates nationwide were more employed than computer science graduates, at a rate of 3% and 6.1%, respectively. The report cites figures from 2023 and is consistently updated on a two-year delay. Anthropology majors were faring the worst, according to the data, and civil engineering and healthcare-related majors saw the lowest unemployment rates.
Job prospects for recent college graduates were thrust into the national spotlight earlier this month when the New York Times reported on the dismal unemployment rates for computer science degree holders. The Federal Reserve Bank’s latest data shows that in 2023, the unemployment rate among computer science graduates was twice as high as that of art history graduates. This is a reversal of the previous year, when the unemployment rate was 4.3% for computer science majors and 8% for art history majors.
In terms of rates of employment, art history graduates are nearly on par with biology, advertising, criminal justice, and education majors; however, these figures don’t necessarily mean that art history majors are finding jobs within the industry.
T.J. Demos, a professor of art history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told Hyperallergic that he believes the trope of art history graduates as unemployable is “commonly exaggerated in the media.”
“In my experience, there’s growing evidence that art history graduates possess distinctly marketable skills, including in critical thinking, visual analysis, foreign language training, and wide knowledge of cultural heritage, which employers across sectors are highly interested in,” Demos said.
While unemployment rates for art history have indeed fallen, nearly 47% of degree holders in the discipline work jobs that do not require a college degree (in economics, this is called being “underemployed”). Underemployment among art history majors is also down from data released last year, when it reached 62.3%, and is now closer to the national average of 41%. Computer science degree holders were more unemployed than art history majors, but a far slimmer share, 16.5%, were underemployed.
These outcomes might be partly due to expectations, economist Allison Shrivastava, who works for the hiring site Indeed’s research offshoot, told Hyperallergic.
“Arts and entertainment, as an industry, is below pre-pandemic levels; they’re not hiring either,” Shrivastava told Hyperallergic, citing Indeed’s Job Postings Index. “Is it that art history majors are actually finding jobs in the arts, or are art history majors more willing to take a retail job or whatever comes their way?”
The latter would explain the low unemployment but relatively high underemployment level for art history degree holders, Shrivastava said. Expectations of cushy six-figure developer positions might inspire computer science graduates to hold out for more relevant jobs: The median early-career salary for an art history major was $45,000, compared to $80,000 for computer science majors, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
As of August 1, Indeed job postings in the Arts and Entertainment category were down by 24.2% from their February 2020 levels, a decrease from the previous year. Like many other sectors, these industries saw a hiring boom in 2022 when pandemic restrictions eased, but job postings have fallen steadily since then. Overall, according to Indeed’s data, job postings are up across the economy by about 6% above pre-pandemic levels.
Even with that slight growth, Shrivastava characterized the labor market across sectors as “frozen.” Companies aren’t necessarily laying workers off, but they’re also not hiring dramatically.
Arts and entertainment job postings are relatively closer to their pre-pandemic levels than their software developer counterparts. Some of the decline in tech jobs likely has to do with overhiring in 2022 and changes brought about by AI, Shrivastava said.
“We have a lot of uncertainty in the economy right now, is the short answer,” Shrivastava said, adding that every sector of the economy is affected by tariffs, either directly or indirectly. “[Arts and entertainment] might not be directly impacted by higher prices, but people are going to be spending less, which would then impact the sector.”