[now_what]

Pace comments that STEM majors are not part of the trend, consider this: I started my undergrad education following the dot com bubble years and was dissuaded to pursue compsci. I went into civil (structural) engineering instead. Over half of my civeng classmates would go to postgrad education -- in engineering, law, whatever -- precisely because of the inability to find a job in civil engineering. About a third of my Master's class (structural engineering @ Berkeley, a top school in the field) couldn't find a job upon graduation. I landed a job purely by accident (with a 3.75 GPA), where a better qualified classmate of mine took another year to find one. I haven't kept track of what happened to the rest.

[Apocryphon]

Exactly. The STEM vs. liberal arts distinction is overgeneralized and divisive; there are definitely STEM majors out there who are having job issues as well. Not all STEM fields have the same employment opportunities.

This problem should concern all of us.

[itg]

My cousin is one. Studied Chemistry at his state flagship, internships, leadership positions at clubs, high gpa. Graduated in '11 and took him months to finally get a job as a lab tech. Doesn't have much room for growth and people he talked to tell him to avoid the PhD for numerous reasons.