Xinzhiyuan Report
Editor: Aeneas
[Xinzhiyuan Guide] The once most popular CS major has just experienced a cold snap: it has become one of the university majors with the highest unemployment rates, ranking seventh! Now, countless graduates have come forward to say that they joined this popular major four years ago during the hype, but after graduating, they sent out 1,000 resumes and received 0 offers, while hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans are now heavily weighing on them.
Who would have thought that the once most popular university major now has one of the highest unemployment rates?
Once all the rage, CS was often rated as the most popular major among university students and recent graduates. However, it has now become one of the fields with the highest unemployment rates across all areas of study.
The data just released by the New York Federal Reserve is astonishing—Computer Science ranks seventh among undergraduate majors for unemployment, reaching 6.1%!
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for computer engineering graduates has reached 7.5%. In contrast, art history graduates have an unemployment rate of only 3%, and nutritional science graduates have the lowest, at just 0.4%.
As one expert put it: "Every kid with a laptop thought they were the next Zuckerberg, but for the vast majority, trying to code their way out of poverty is simply a fantasy."
A prominent investment influencer bluntly stated: "If you see anyone online telling you to mindlessly switch to coding and study computer science, you can just block them!"
Spending over a million RMB to switch to coding in North America and still dreaming of high salaries is definitely a gamble.
Sent 1000 Resumes, Received 0 Offers
Below are some living examples.
For example, a 22-year-old CS graduate once posted on Reddit, stating that both of his parents have PhDs and work as adjunct professors at a local university, but their combined annual income is only $15,000, so the family relies on his grandparents' retirement and pension to live.
He always thought that choosing a major in college that could support himself and his parents was the right decision.
Unexpectedly, after graduating with excellent grades and a CS degree this past May, he has sent out nearly 1,000 resumes but has not received any offers, and even interview opportunities are rare.
Even if he was willing to accept entry-level IT support positions, he still couldn't find work. For him, it felt like a waste of four years studying this major.
Many say that finding a job is all about connections, but he has none. What's worse, the grace period for his $50,000 student loan is ending in one month.
In the end, the young man even considered entering the retail or fast-food industries, or becoming a driver directly.
Indeed, having a CS degree does not guarantee a job, because it doesn't mean you can write software that the CS industry is willing to pay for.
This industry produces many elites, and competition is fierce. Furthermore, you might be good at coding but not at selling yourself in an interview.
There are simply too many CS graduates who have faced the same difficulties as the young man who posted.
Many of these individuals didn't know what they wanted to do in high school, so they blindly chose CS. Furthermore, many genuinely believed the myth of "earning a $120,000 starting salary right after graduation," but this is simply a fantasy.
Norm Krumpe, a student advisor for the Computer Science and Software Engineering Department at the University of Miami, stated that the key to finding a job is to cast a wide net early on.
"You have to start early and leave no stone unturned. You have to put in more effort and look for opportunities everywhere. The most successful students, who get the most internships, often excel in most coursework, internships, research, and project compilations."
After all, even a Berkeley CS professor said that even graduates with a 4.0 GPA can't find jobs.
Ben Riesett, a 22-year-old student who graduated from the Catholic University of America, expressed his helplessness, saying that whenever he tells people he studied CS, they give him an envious look—"You're so lucky, you can make a lot of money, you can do whatever you want."
However, the reality is: LOL, simply can't find a job.
He heard that classmates who had found jobs either did so through friends, family, or internships.
Alex Giang, a CS student who graduated from Cornell University, is preparing to start a software engineering internship at a digital advertising company.
Previously, he applied to Uber, Airbnb, Tesla, Meta, Apple, and Amazon, but all ended in failure.
His and his friends' mindset is already: "If you find a job, even if you don't like it, you have to take it, because you don't know what else you might get."
Unable to Find Work, So Opted for Graduate Studies
Many other undergraduate graduates are choosing to pursue "panic" graduate studies.
Samhita Parvatini, who graduated from Penn State University last May, said she entered college during the 2021 hiring boom, when CS degrees were extremely sought after.
However, four years later, after successfully obtaining her degree, she has sent out nearly 300 job applications but has still received nothing. In her view, the employment situation at large tech companies today is completely opposite to five years ago.
Finally, a month before graduation, with nothing in hand, she chose to apply for a one-year master's program, hoping to secure an internship opportunity.
Despite this, a report from the Burning Glass Institute shows that 7% of people with CS graduate degrees are still unemployed.
Yahya Bashir, a recent CS graduate from Gustavus Adolphus College, also stated that his job search has become significantly harder over the past year.
During the 2023 summer application cycle, he would quickly receive responses from companies and multiple interview invitations. However, now he has applied for 100 positions, and most of them have gone unanswered.
In some cases, employers even post "ghost jobs."
Recent software engineering graduates need to compete with more experienced professionals. Over several years of major layoffs, hundreds of thousands of tech employees have re-entered the job market to compete with graduates for positions, while job openings in the market have decreased.
Has the AI craze not boosted CS major employment?
Emos Ker, a recent NYU graduate, stated that although LLMs are a very hot sub-industry within the CS field, they demand higher professional skill levels from employees.
Among a pile of resumes, employers often only hire experienced employees from large tech companies, rather than fresh graduates.
Silicon Valley Layoffs: CS Students Graduate Straight into Unemployment
During the pandemic, the US experienced a tech boom, leading to a surge in demand for CS students.
However, in recent years, Silicon Valley giants have conducted ruthless mass layoffs, with tens of thousands being cut. This has directly caused the attractiveness of CS in the job market to instantly dim.
Although ranked as the number one university major by "The Princeton Review," ambitious CS graduates are finding after graduation that the tech industry market simply doesn't have that many positions for them.
The New York Federal Reserve recently surveyed 2023 census data and recent university graduate unemployment rates, and the figures are surprising.
Currently, the unemployment rate for CS is 6.1%, which is lower than that of majors like Physics and Anthropology. Physics has an unemployment rate of 7.8%, and Anthropology has 9.4%.
Surprisingly, the majors with the lowest unemployment rates are Nutritional Science, Architectural Services, and Civil Engineering, remaining between 1% and 0.4%.
Overall, unemployment among US university graduates is worsening. The unemployment rate has risen from 4.6% last year to 5.8% in March this year.
In February alone this year, the number of Gen Z households receiving unemployment benefits increased by 32% year-on-year.
The number of students in computer and information science majors in the US surged by 40% in five years, exceeding 600,000 by 2023. According to data from the US Department of Education, over 100,000 bachelor's degrees were awarded in these fields in 2021, a 140% increase from 10 years prior.
So, why is the unemployment rate for CS so high in the US today?
Alex Beene, a finance lecturer at the University of Tennessee at Martin, explains it this way—
"While demand for CS talent has been unprecedentedly strong in recent years, an oversupply of CS graduates doesn't necessarily create more talent. As companies develop more complex needs, they often prefer to hire employees with stronger skills and proven track records."
And in an environment where many employers are scaling back, this situation is particularly evident.
HR consultant Bryan Driscoll stated that for a long time, CS students were instilled with a dream fundamentally inconsistent with reality—choose the "right" major, study hard, and you'll find a stable, high-paying job.
But once they graduate, reality hits them hard: too many graduates, too few positions, and the market generally values credentials over potential.
What's worse, they are burdened with heavy debt.
According to data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), Computer and Information Sciences is among the top 20 fastest-growing majors at four-year universities in the US, and ranks fourth among the most popular. Between 2018 and 2023, the number of students in computer and information science majors surged from approximately 444,000 to 628,000.
Financial expert and company founder Michael Ryan stated that we created a gold rush mentality in the programming world just as the gold was drying up.
Today, companies are cutting engineering budgets by 40%, while CS major enrollment is at an all-time high. This is basic economics: when the market is flooded, wages plummet.
In short, there are so many CS graduates now that competition is galactic. For a single position, tens of thousands of people might apply, and requirements are constantly reaching new heights: years of experience, impressive GitHub profiles, and a willingness to accept low wages.
The HR consultant mentioned earlier stated that the problem lies with the entire system.
"We've trained too many CS graduates without addressing the exploitation and limitations in tech industry hiring."
Entry-level positions are disappearing, unpaid internships are still rampant, and companies are either outsourcing work or directly replacing humans with automation.
In summary: CS is the entrance to heaven, and the exit to hell.
Should Programming Start with Children?
Is the American programming myth now completely shattered?
Not only is employment for university CS majors dismal, but K12 programming education is also being questioned.
It is worth noting that as early as 2016, then-President Obama launched a "Computer Science for All" initiative, defining CS as "a skill on par with the 3Rs."
At the time, he pledged $4 billion to states and $100 million to school districts to expand CS education in K12 schools.
Even recently, tech companies have been promoting the development of CS education, implying that this major could increase salaries by 8%.
Meanwhile, they are frantically building AI coding tools, which will directly lead to a decrease in demand for CS graduates.
The founder of an American educational training institution stated bluntly: "We've all been misled by the crazy hype about teaching children to code!"
Over the past 10 years, the slogan "Every child should learn to code!" has been popular in American schools.
The President said so, governors echoed it, and tech company CEOs rushed to pour in funds.
But no one stopped to ask: Is this really what students need?
After all, the unemployment rate for CS is almost the highest among all majors.
While schools like visible activities and governments want headlines, this founder urged—
Schools exist not to make tech companies richer, nor to make politicians seem more modern, but to help children grow into capable, thoughtful, and resilient adults.
References:
https://e.vnexpress.net/news/tech/tech-news/computer-science-ranks-7th-among-us-college-majors-with-highest-unemployment-4891937.html
https://x.com/kimmonismus/status/1929823620995440660
https://www.newsweek.com/computer-science-popular-college-major-has-one-highest-unemployment-rates-2076514
https://www.reddit.com/r/findapath/comments/1h24ic7/22m_recently_graduated_with_cs_degree_cant_find/