What to study for jobs? - Stephen Baker

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What to study for jobs?

March 5, 2012

General

I came across this interesting graphic showing unemployment rates in different fields of study. (link from @jowyang) Not surprisingly, things I studied--history, literature, languages--feature prominently on the high jobless side. What surprised me a bit was how poorly various branches of psychology rank.

I looked to see how Numerati jobs are faring. Sure enough, the best bet for a job appears to be Actuarial Science, which is an area of applied statistics. But the rest of the good ones are hard sciences (Astronomy and Astrophysics) and trades (Nursing). The one that surprised me was Public Policy. But it shouldn't have: My future daughter in law got a masters in that and landed a great job even before she graduated.

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Speaking of unemployment, I'll be presenting this morning at the Brite '12 marketing conference at Columbia University. My subject: IBM's Watson and the coming automation in marketing (and elsewhere).