Graduating into a recession stunts the careers of the young men and women entering the labor market. But it turns out a lot of students don’t sit back and passively accept this outcome: Many students who see a recession during their early college years switch to majors with better job prospects. According to new research from Benjamin Keys at the University of Chicago, Brian Cadena at the University of Colorado Boulder and Erica Blom at Edgeworth Economics, the shifts can be dramatic. When the national unemployment rate rises by 1 percentage point, the share of women studying business rises by nearly two-thirds of a percentage point. The share of women studying nursing climbs by nearly a third of a percentage point. An additional quarter percentage point switch into accounting. Meanwhile, enrollment in education, literature and languages, sociology and psychology drops.

July 17, 2015 ・ From The Wall Street Journal