It has been fifteen years since the United States experienced a recession. With increasing joblessness, many have once again begun questioning whether education is an important investment. It is a sign of the times that the number of students seeking degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEAM) has increased significantly, while the number of students enrolled in the humanities has dropped. Few people question the value of studying the humanities, however. After all, what good is an education if it doesn’t enable one to make a living?What most people do not realize is that ‘jobs’ and ‘joblessness’ are not the same thing. A job involves performing a specific task for a company. Once completed, the person/s who performed the task are no longer needed. Conversely, a joblessness situation occurs when people have accepted jobs, but find themselves unable to find them. Jobs are temporary and may be temporary again. For this reason, students should seriously consider studying STEAM to promote long-term employment. Many jobs, such as teachers, nurses, and police officers, are practically guaranteed for the foreseeable future. Others such as computer software engineers and petroleum engineers are much less secure. However, the STEAM fields have a variety of positions that are likely to remain unfilled because companies want to hire the most qualified employees possible. These positions include computer programmers, mechanical engineers, computer engineers, and civil engineers. In addition, the jobs in these fields are some of the highest-paid, so students should not view them as frivolous fields of study. Furthermore, even fields such as math and physics are useful in other fields. For instance, physicists study how matter behaves in a variety of different circumstances, providing useful information that scientists can use to better develop batteries, fertilisers, and vaccines

Therefore, while there is some truth to the argument that students should study subjects in which they can enjoy long-term employment, students should also consider the many uses that their degrees will have. By studying a widely applicable field, students increase their chances of finding a job upon graduation. However, if students want to opt for fields in which they have a better chance of finding a job upon graduation, they should do so.