<p>You might want to go hunting on the UAB (University of Alabama/Birmingham) site. I found a link to a .pdf doc that is only available to members of a professional organization (of which UAB is one.) It had career outlooks for Business, Math & Computer Science degrees. I was shocked to read that the forecast for Finance majors was higher than for CS. The forecast was derived by surveying employers for their recruitment plans.</p>
<p>Also, somewhere on the internet I found this really great quote, which I’ll attempt to paraphrase. It was something along the lines of CS professionals are in high demand, but only if you have the specific skillset du jour. So, getting hired for the first 5 years or so will not be a problem, but you can be a hardworking, intelligent software engineer and still face periods of un- and under-employment. </p>
<p>I’ve been a software engineer for 34 years (OMG!!) and I like it a lot. And while I certainly wouldn’t actively discourage someone from pursuing it, but I would inject some realism if they perceived a CS degree as a guaranteed ticket to permanent employment.</p>
<p>If your mom could be swayed by a logical argument backed up with documentation, you would definitely have fodder for making a case that your desired majors are every bit as practical as a CS degree.</p>