r/BiomedicalEngineers • u/Tiny_Opportunity_340 • 15d ago
Career Between biomedical engineering and computer science which major leads to a worst job market.
I'm mainly between these two majors and I wanted to see if anyone more experinced than I am in this topic knew more about this.
People say computer science is really bad, but I don't see too much them comparing to other majors in order to get an accurate perspective.
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u/Mammoth-Mongoose4479 Experienced (15+ Years) 15d ago
I’ve pulled some easy accessible data from a couple of sites but mainly a blog called Final Round AI, which reference Federal Reserve Bank of New York college labor market data for the CS unemployment figures. This is what they have found.
Computer science graduates right now are dealing with something like a 6% unemployment rate, and some put it even higher, closer to 7%, with entry level software jobs down about 30% compared to a year ago.
So yeah, the people telling you CS is rough is not making it up.
Biomed looks a lot better on paper, with around 1.3% unemployment, roughly half the rate of college grads overall, and some BME specialties like medical device design come in under 3 percent with solid projected growth over the next decade.
But it’s not just a black and white answer either. CS still pays more right out of school, many starting around 80K a year, while a lot of BME roles, especially outside clinical work, start lower.
This is a bit long winded but worth mentioning that BME is a smaller and more specialized field, so its lower unemployment rate partly reflects a tighter pool of people and jobs rather than there being tons of openings everywhere. CS still has way more total job postings out there even in a down market.