Architecture looks pretty bad in a new study about which bachelor's degrees yield the most unemployment.
The risk of joblessness was greatest for recent architecture graduates, according to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, at 13.9 percent. That compares to an overall unemployment rate of 8.9 percent among recent grads.
(It must, of course, be noted that even 13.9 percent is much, much better than 22.9 percent -- the average unemployment rate for people with no more education than a high school diploma.)
I spoke Wednesday with Prof. Renée Cheng, head of the University of Minnesota's School of Architecture, about the numbers and what the U is doing to combat them.
First, she questioned what the study was measuring. The job market is certainly tough for architecture graduates in this economy, she said, but the study lumps together dissimilar degrees. Cheng pointed out that some undergraduate programs are meant as a first step toward a graduate degree in architecture, much like pre-law.
The U used to have a bachelor of architecture degree -- a five-year professional degree. But leaders switched it to the master's level, while adding a bachelor of design in architecture degree. The new undergraduate program "was designed to address the change in traditional architecture employment," Cheng said, and broadens the curriculum to incorporate historic preservation, public health, urban planning and more.
She continued:
The program's graduates are getting jobs in various sectors, she said, including healthcare. But she declined to give statistics, saying that the U does not have them, because of low response rates from graduates. "We're trying to get better at that."
