Jeb Bush maligns psychology majors and Chick-Fil-A in one fell swoop

Presidential candidate Jeb Bush took a swipe at psychology majors in a speech Saturday morning, as reported in the Washington Examiner. Although I’m not a huge fan of Chick-Fil-A, I’m sure those who love the restaurant, as well as the owners and employees of the chain are likely to take issue with Jeb Bush characterizing its jobs as undesirable. Further, I’m sure lots of psychology majors (and professors) might find his remarks to be distasteful, not to mention just plain ignorant.

Universities … ought to say ‘Hey, that psych major deal … realize, you’re going to be working a Chick-fil-A.’ … I just don’t think people are getting jobs as psych majors

But what is the reality in his statement that psychology majors are destined for a job at Chick-Fil-A, or simply not getting a job? That turns out to be a complex question, and it should come as no surprise that a politician, even one as smart as Jeb Bush, would reduce a complex question to a simplistic statement of fact.

What about his first proposition: working at Chick-Fil-A? Lets look at the data and see if we can glean anything useful about our majors’ chances of working at Chick-Fil-A.

Thus far, there are no studies looking specifically at psychology majors’ employment at Chick-Fil-A, or fast-food style restaurants in general. But there are studies that have looked at employment prospects for various majors.

The bad news is that he is partly right. When looking at data on employment of recent college graduates by major from 2009–2011 in a recent report published by the New York Federal Reserve Bank (Abel, Deitz, & Su, 2014), 48% of “social sciences” majors were working in jobs where a bachelor’s degree is not required. 45% were working in jobs where it is required, and 7% were unemployed.

It’s tough to know whether psychology is included in “social sciences” because the report’s categories do not align with the source of the data, the American Community Survey. If, for example, psychology is included in the “Sciences” category in the NY Fed’s report, then the numbers are 43%, 51%, and 6% respectively. Both of these major groups fall squarely in the middle of the pack in regards to employment of graduates in jobs not requiring a Bachelor’s degree.

So, yes, Jeb!, a substantial minority of psychology grads might be working in jobs at Chick-Fil-A, but I doubt even that large company (or food service in general) can handle 43–48% of the 109,000 (2011-12 year, NCES data) psychology majors. So, where are they going to work then?

Well, to answer that, we turn to a report authored by a group at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (Carnevale, Strohl, & Melton, 2011). The data from the 2009 American Community Survey indicates that 45% of Psychology and Social Work* graduates are working on a graduate degree (from which they will reap a 43% boost in earnings), and at least some of those (likely those in terminal Masters programs that provide little financial support) have part-time jobs, perhaps at employers who have flexible work schedules (evenings and weekends) such as Chick-Fil-A. The supposition that some are working part-time jobs is supported by the data: 21% of employed graduates are working part time, while 79% are working full-time. Overall, 94% of psychology and Social Work graduates have a job after graduation. So much for his second proposition: psych majors are getting jobs.

Okay, so what about those Psychology and Social Work major group graduates with a terminal bachelor’s degree—those who do not go on for a graduate degree? Well, here’s the occupations they go into in order of percentage (Carnevale, Strohl, & Melton, 2011): Community Service (18%), Management (16%), Office (15%), Sales (11%), and Education (8%). The percentages total 68% of the terminal Bachelor’s candidates. Food Service did not even make the top five. By industry classification, the top five were: Health Services (26%), Education (12%), Public Administration (12%), Financial Services (9%), and Professional Services (7%). That totals 66%, and again Food Service was not even in the list**.

So that settles his first proposition: psych majors do not wind up working at Chick-Fil-A (or by extension other food service jobs).

OK, so Jeb! was making a comparison to other fields like electricians, welders, plumbers, information technologists, and teachers. Well, we have shown that 8% of Psychology and Social Work majors go into education occupations. So, psychology seems to be a good preparation for that career.

I am inferring that Jeb! means no disrespect for these occupations, but by saying, “hey, why don’t those psych majors go into the trades?” he is fundamentally saying that anyone can get into trades like plumbing, welding, and electrical. The fact is, that those trades most likely require a very specific set of cognitive abilities, namely the spatial relations, mathematical, and visualization skills that people who can convert ideas and drawings into functional objects connected to complex plumbing and electrical systems. Not to mention that not everyone has the orientation toward or interest in doing these kinds of jobs. Concordance between interest and job is important for job satisfaction. As for Information Technology, again, that requires a rather specific set of mental skills and interests, and not everyone is going to be interested or successful at those.

It is also ironic that Jeb!’s colleague, Congressman Trey Gowdy ridiculed his son’s choice of a philosophy major, saying “he is in law school.” Did he even stop to consider that training in the complexities of logic, reasoning, and argumentation that his son learned in his philosophy classes likely prepared him extremely well for the skills he will use as a lawyer?

OK – so the reality is that no, Jeb!, psych majors are not going to work at Chick-Fil-A. They are getting jobs, and jobs in the important areas of community service, education, health service, management, etc. They are, on average earning much less than some other bachelor’s majors such as engineering, but that is a topic I have addressed previously here.

If, as the article states, Jeb!’s campaign is trying to reach college voters, it is not a great idea to malign one of the most popular college majors!

(edit) If you want to tell Jeb! and the Twitterverse what psychology majors do, use the hash tag: #thispsychmajor.

References (sorry, but I can’t get hanging indents to work):
Abel, J. R., Deitz, R., & Su, Y (2014). Are recent college graduates finding good jobs? Current Issues in Economics and Finance, 20(1). Retrieved from Federal Reserve Bank of New York website: http://newyorkfed.org/research/current_issues/ci20-1.pdf

Carnevale, A. P., Strohl, J., & Melton, M. (2011). What’s it worth? The economic value of college majors. Retrieved from Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce website: http://cew.georgetown.edu/whatitsworth

Link to the article: Jeb Bush: Psych majors work at Chick-fil-A | Washington Examiner.

* This group includes the following majors:

• Clinical Psychology

• Communications Disorders Sciences and Services

• Counseling Psychology

• Educational Psychology

• Human Services and Community Organization

• Industrial and Organizational Psychology

• Miscellaneous Psychology

• Psychology

• Social Psychology

• Social Work

** There are a few majors which have a substantial portion of graduates in food service. As you might imagine, Cosmetology Services and Culinary Arts comes in at 36%, and Hospitality Management comes in at 35%. The remainder are small percentages: Genetics (9%), Astronomy and Astrophysics (8%), Court Reporting (8%), Nutrition Sciences (7%), Architectural Engineering (5%), and 2% each for Pharmacy Pharmaceutical Sciences and Administration, and Treatment Therapy Professions.