Growing up in Detroit, Ryon Baldwin-Williams built web pages as a hobby. As a computer science major at Michigan State University’s School of Engineering, he got prized internships, working (among other stints) as a software analyst at consulting firm Accenture, and a software engineering intern at Rocket Companies, the big Detroit-based fintech built by billionaire Dan Gilbert. He even worked at MSU’s career services center during his sophomore to senior year, figuring it would help him network and learn about the resume tips, tricks, and skills needed to land a job after college.

Yet more than a year after graduation, Baldwin-Williams, now 23, is still hunting for a permanent software engineering job. “I originally had a spreadsheet of every single job I applied to and the status of it,” he says. “But once I got to 100 applications, I said, ‘Uh-uh’ and deleted the whole thing.”

While lots of recent college graduates are being battered by a weak hiring market, perhaps no group is more shocked by their current plight than those who majored in engineering, long considered among the safest, most secure, and highest-paying majors. Yes, engineering grads still make more than education and English majors. The National Association of College and Employers projected in February that 2026 engineering and computer science grads would see average starting salaries topping $81,000, compared to less than $69,000 for those majoring in business, social sciences and communications.

But that’s if they can find a job. In fact, the prospects for engineering grads are markedly worse than for other majors. According to LinkedIn data provided exclusively to Forbes, while overall hiring of new grads fell 20% between December 2019 and April 2026, jobs for engineering majors were down by 25%, the biggest drop for any of the 20 most common majors on LinkedIn’s platform. By contrast, jobs for education majors and those in the health professions slid 16%.

“There was a time where we told everyone to code and we thought that was a very safe role,” says Kory Kantenga, LinkedIn’s Head of Economics, Americas. “And now we see for folks who graduate with computer science degrees, unemployment is relatively elevated.”

Of course it’s not just new grads suffering. Outplacement consultant........

© Forbes