Business Majors: Leaders of Tomorrow’s Waitstaff

Business as usual is…underemployed. A recent PayScale report found that business schools have the highest rate of underemployed graduates. Traveling, yelling at people to “sell high” on your cellphone, and doing other business-y things is more fantasy than reality for most, with business school grads 1.17 times more underemployed than the national average.

One of the most striking aspects of the underemployment report is that business administration and management majors are the most underemployed in the nation – 8.2 times more underemployed than average. Are their degrees helping them to “manage” that awful number? Apparently not well. One of the three most common jobs for grads in the field is waiter/waitressing. That should be disappointing to hear for those who were hoping to manage hedge funds instead of serving hamburgers.

Even with U.S. job creation at the best it’s been in five years, the PayScale report puts a good punch on the conversation of whether studying business in school is worth it. With experts saying that even an MBA isn’t a worthy investment and probably won’t command the salary increase you want, putting your hopes into an undergrad business program may be a pipe dream.

On the other end of the ranking are engineering schools (at number eight), whose grads are only 0.36 times underemployed compared to the nation. They also make a typical starting salary of $58,200 compared to business’s $42,500. And we know most engineering students don’t spend money on fashion or dining!

Did I mention that I majored in Art Education?

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