New Study Shows High Unemployment Among Recent Architecture Grads

According to the most recent American Community Survey by the Census Bureau, graduating architecture students have the highest unemployment rate among their peers: 13.9 percent, compared to 11.1 percent in the arts and 9.4 percent of those studying the humanities. The graph is available here. This is depressing news for CAD-lovers and design nerds everywhere, and The Washington Post reports that the debate over the value of a pricey college education is heating up.

The article quotes Anthony P. Carnevale, one of the authors of the study, as saying, "People keep telling kids to study what they love -- but some loves are worth more than others."

Parents: do you think your kids should study what they want or do you think they need to be more realistic about their aspirations? If the latter, how do you nudge your teen in the right direction? And what is to become of architecture and design if high school grads eschew the field for other, seemingly better, opportunities?

For architecture graduates who are still waiting for gainful employment, maybe the "Graduate Architects Unemployment Support Group" needs to be resurrected on Facebook. As Sherin Wing writes in Archinet: "A collective voice of both the unemployed and employed in architecture would prove powerful indeed."