I was never a very good student. In fact, I remember taking my A levels not having finished reading my English literature books.
Instead, I read the summaries of each chapter which I found online. You can see that I wasn’t the best student. That said, I’d choose humanities over science any day.
Economists Say English Majors Are Needed Amidst Slump In Humanities Grads
Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t share the same sentiment, unsurprisingly. Nowadays, practicality is way more important than passion, or so a lot of people think.
And a lot of people believe that science and engineering degrees are simply not as practical. Especially when the whole point of going to University to most of us is to graduate and get a steady paying job.
According to the National Centre for Education Statistics, the number of people majoring in English has fallen more than 25.5% since the Great Recession.
That’s a lot of people.
The main reason? Job prospects, of course.
Most kids are abandoning English courses in exchange for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) as they believe that that’s the best path for employment.
Those majoring in computer science and health fields doubled from 2019 to 2017. There has also been a big jump in engineering and math degrees.
These perceptions are pretty expected. Think about it, imagine telling your relatives you’re taking an English degree and they’ll more often than not ask you “Why?”
Economists Are Stepping Up To Say We Need English Majors
However, economists like Nobel Prize Winner Robert Shiller has stepped up to say that there is a need for English majors.
He believes that “stories” about the Great Depression, for example, was far more useful in helping him understand the period of economic and financial turmoil than his economic classes were.
Similarly, he claims that “stories” and “narratives” have bigger impacts on the market and the economy at large.
For example, stories like “Anyone can be a homeowner” helped to drive the housing bubble, while “Get rich quick” helped the bitcoin market.
Similarly, one of the world’s top economists, Philip Lowe who is the head of Australia’s central bank stated that there is a need to focus less on numbers and more on being good storytellers.
“It’s important we don’t just talk about numbers, coefficients and rules, but stories that people can understand,” Lowe said. “Stories about how policies are contributing to economic welfare and the things that really matter to people.”
The governor of Sweden’s central bank, Stefan Ingves shares the same sentiment and says, “If we tell a convincing story that growth will continue, people are likely to say, “Hmm, that’s reasonable.”
This could help keep confidence high in the economy, thus encouraging companies to keep hiring and consumers to keep spending. This will, therefore, boost the economy.
And lest you’re not aware, English majors study English so chimly that they even analyse Singlish. Here, take a look at this video about Singlish that we’ve done, which is written by an English major and vetted by another English major:
(Do follow us on Instagram for more informative videos!)
English Majors Have Lower Unemployment Rate Than Maths & Computer Science Majors
If you thought that English Majors would have a hard time finding jobs, think again.
English majors aged 25 to 29 years old had a lower unemployment rate in 2017 than maths and computer science majors.
Research conducted by David Deming and Kadeem Noray from Havard also revealed that the high starting pay STEM grads receive fades quickly.
“By age 40, the earnings of people who majored in fields like social science or history have caught up,” wrote Deming in a recent New York Times op-ed.
Well, hopefully, this encourages more people to follow their passion and major in English if they wish to.
Because not all English majors become teacher.
We’ve a few English majors here in Goody Feed, though there’s a high chance that they’re just rejects from MOE #sorrynosorry
If you watch at least 10 minutes of brain rot content daily, you must know this:
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