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Overview: In 2017, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the unemployment rate for college graduates fell to 4.9 percent in 2016 compared to 9.7 percent in 2010. However, a CNN article titled, What your college major says about your job potential, reports that, "62.3% of art graduates end up taking lower paying jobs that don't even require a college degree." A Forbes article titled, “Does Your Major Matter” goes on to say that visual arts, fine arts and music account for three out of the top ten worst majors based on employment rates following graduation. The question arises, is higher education worthwhile for artists, and what exactly does the workforce require for this career path? William Johnson, a recent doctorate recipient from Ohio State University in Arts Administration, explains that what is required to make a living as an artist is very different than even 20 years ago. “In the late 1980s, pure performance opportunities were enough for music professionals to support themselves, but the musicians of today require a set of skills not explicitly instructed in a four-year-degree, most predominantly career and financial management,” he says in his dissertation titled, “Four-Year Music Degree Program Perceptions of Value from Administrators and Students.” Johnson believes that artists today must utilize both tangible skills that relate to the creation and performance of music, but also a strong understanding of how to develop a portfolio-based career. He concludes that, “Although this is hampered by a relative lack of security, the ability to connect job responsibilities to less traditional outcomes of personal fulfillment create cross-career mobility that provides musicians with the strongest level of success.” Anthony Carnevale, director of Georgetown University's Center of Education and the Workforce says there is at least one reassuring quality of jobs in the performing arts."Drama and theater jobs were not heavily affected by the 2008 recession and they tend to have lower unemployment rates during economic downturns because there are fewer graduates in these fields," he explains during an interview with USA Today regarding an unemployment study they released in 2013. Despite Forbes strong opposition toward art centered degrees, they go on to say, “It is important for students to major in what they enjoy most and what they are best at. When they do so, they are much more likely to excel in class and enhance their career options.”