The Daily Beast recently ran a story titled "The 13 Most Useless Majors, From Philosophy to Journalism." Guess which field came in at No. 10. That's right, hospitality management.
Here are the stats cited as to why it came in at that spot:
Unemployment, recent grad: 9.1 percent
Unemployment, experienced grad: 5.7 percent
Earnings, recent grad: US$32,000
Earnings, experienced grad: US$53,000
Projected growth, 2010–2020: +8 percent
Related occupation: Lodging manager
"This year we started with new research (PDF) from Georgetown University—which drew from two years of census data to determine the prospects for myriad majors—to narrow down our list to more than three dozen popular college majors," The Daily Beast reported. "We also used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, equally weighing the following categories to determine current and future employment and earnings potential for our final ranking: recent graduate employment, experienced graduate employment, recent graduate earnings, experienced graduate earnings and projected growth in total number of jobs, 2010-2020."
Obviously, we feel differently and believe that the hospitality industry greases the wheels of world production. So, to say that it's a useless major is short-sighted and ignorant of the industry's broad-reaching economic facts.
We're sure you have some thoughts. Please let us know of them in the comments.