Personal take: One issue I think some people have, is that there's not a "lot" of private sector historian work. As a percentage of the profession, its relatively small. Higher-Ed (Tenure, Non-Tenure, Admin) is close to 70%.
The stats for professional historians are indeed horrible, but this is not the only place where people with history degrees can go. If you asked me "should anybody consider going to a phd program in history, except perhaps at the top five institutions and with some financial backup" I'd say "no." But things are a bit different for undergrad.