College majors affect unemployment, a recent study finds.

Senior Will Barringer is worried he might not have a job following May graduation.

The English and Spanish double major said his search for potential job opportunities has been frustrating.

“There’s not much out there from what I have been able to see,” he said.

Barringer is hoping to teach English in Spain next year, but he said if this doesn’t work out, he’ll probably apply to graduate school for a better shot at employment.

Many students, like Barringer, with liberal arts majors have found themselves facing a tough job market, according to a recent study conducted by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.

The report, which was based on 2009 and 2010 data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, lists majors and academic disciplines by their unemployment rate for recent college graduates.

While the study ranks majors by their unemployment rate, it does not discredit the value of a college diploma.

Unemployment for new graduates is about 8.9 percent, but the rate for workers with only a high school diploma is nearly three times as high, at 22.9 percent, according to the report.

Architecture majors had the highest unemployment rate of 13.9 percent while health care and education majors had one of the lowest rates of 5.4 percent.

Business majors also had a lower unemployment rate of 7.4 percent.

UNC senior Larsen Jones said his business major helped land him a full-time job a year in advance.

Jones said his job search started last spring and ended this past summer when his internship offered him a full-time job, which will begin after he graduates.

But students who are struggling to decide on a major should consult people with professional experience in various fields, said Anthony Carnevale, one of the authors of the report.

He said it’s also important for the student to get an idea of what the trend is in the economy.

“Architecture won’t recover soon because of the downturn of the housing market,” he said.

A school’s academic reputation doesn’t necessarily guarantee employment for graduates either, Carnevale said.

“If (employers) are looking for engineers, they don’t care if you get your degree in philosophy from Harvard,” he said.

Other graduates facing high unemployment rates include non-technical majors such as liberal arts and humanities at 9.4 percent and social sciences at 8.9 percent.

While unemployment rates for some majors rival the state’s overall unemployment rate of about 10 percent, Ray Angle, director of University Career Services, said students shouldn’t get discouraged.

“Getting the degree allows you to have more clout with employers,” he said. “It shows that you’re committed to life-long learning.”

If students decide not to major in architecture because of low employment rates, we won’t have architects when the economy turns around, he said.

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