“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
It’s a question kids are frequently asked, and one that usually elicits excited answers. Kids will say they want to be teachers, astronauts, veterinarians, doctors — the list goes on. You’ll hear all about why their dream job du jour is important and interesting.
Seldom, if ever, will you hear a child rattle on about the profitability of the career, or what unemployment rates look like in the field or whether the market is oversaturated with educated job candidates.
Read More: Here’s How To Use AI To Quickly Start a Side Gig, According to Codie Sanchez
Try This: 6 Unusual Ways To Make Extra Money That Actually Work
By the time high school rolls around, kids usually have a less fantastical and more hardened sense of a career’s viability. They may shut down the prospect of some college majors that appeal to them because the careers they lead to are typically low paying, if not on the verge of being totally obsolete.
Those kids — the ones who just say no to majors they may have once dreamed of pursuing — probably won’t be surprised by recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York that found the careers with the lowest wages in one’s early earning years.
Also read about the top college majors with the highest mid-career salaries.
Trending Now: Suze Orman’s Secret to a Wealthy Retirement–Have You Made This Money Move?
10. Theology and Religion
-
Share with graduate degree: 45.6%
-
Median wage, early career: $42,000
-
Unemployment rate: 3.1%
-
Underemployment rate: 42.9%
9. Social Services
-
Share with graduate degree: 51.9%
-
Median wage, early career: $42,000
-
Unemployment rate: 1.7%
-
Underemployment rate: 31.8%
Check Out: Passive Income Expert — Here’s How I Make $27,000 Every Week
8. Miscellaneous Biological Science
-
Share with graduate degree: 60%
-
Median wage, early career: $42,000
-
Unemployment rate: 3.1%
-
Underemployment rate: 49.0%
7. General Education
-
Share with graduate degree: 43.1%
-
Median wage, early career: $42,000
-
Unemployment rate: 3.3%
-
Underemployment rate: 22.1%
6. Family and Consumer Sciences
-
Share with graduate degree: 36.1%
-
Median wage, early career: $42,000
-
Unemployment rate: 2.7%
-
Underemployment rate: 39.8%
5. Early Childhood Education
-
Share with graduate degree: 43.1%
-
Median wage, early career: $42,000
-
Unemployment rate: 1.3%
-
Underemployment rate: 22.1%
4. Anthropology
-
Share with graduate degree: 46.7%
-
Median wage, early career: $42,000
-
Unemployment rate: 9.4%
-
Underemployment rate: 55.9%
3. Performing Arts
-
Share with graduate degree: 37.3%
-
Median wage, early career: $41,000
-
Unemployment rate: 2.7%
-
Underemployment rate: 62.3%
2. General Social Sciences
-
Share with graduate degree: 40.3%
-
Median wage, early career: $41,000
-
Unemployment rate: 3.3%
-
Underemployment rate: 54.1%
1. Foreign Language
-
Share with graduate degree: 50.5%
-
Median wage, early career: $40,000
-
Unemployment rate: 4%
-
Underemployment rate: 51.1%
More From GOBankingRates
-
6 Costco Products That Have the Most Customer Complaints
-
Mark Cuban: Trump’s Tariffs Will Affect This Class of People the Most
-
How Middle-Class Earners Are Quietly Becoming Millionaires — and How You Can, Too
-
4 Low-Risk Ways To Build Your Savings in 2025
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: The 10 Worst-Paying College Majors 5 Years After Graduation: Is Your Degree Among Them?