I wonder what the unemployment rate would be for just philosophers - removing all the Theology majors who may get jobs as reverends. (Rubio should have said plumbers, everyone knows they get paid!)
Don’t know why there seems to be more skepticism of philosophy majors compared to other majors that are not strongly associated to specific jobs and careers. The reasons given in reply #18 why philosophy majors do well in law are likely the same things that employers hiring non-specific bachelor’s degree graduates desire.
Don’t know about relative unemployment rates, but in average earnings it’s just the reverse of what you imagine—Religion majors pull down the average for the broader “Philosophy and Religion” category. Philosophy majors earn more on average. Take Payscale’s figures with a grain of salt, but they show “early career pay” of $42,200 and “mid-career pay” of $85,000 for Philosophy majors, good for #75 out of 319 listed majors, higher than fields like Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Marketing, Architecture, Accounting, etc. Religion majors are well down the list at #281, with “early-career” earnings of $37,800 and “mid-career” at $56,300.
It’s not as easy as you imagine for a Religion major to waltz out of college with a BA degree and into a pulpit. Many denominations require specialized training at the graduate level, either in a seminary or in a divinity school. Undergraduate education in Religion or Religious Studies tends to be more about religion from an academic perspective—history of religion, comparative religions, religion as an aspect of cultural studies, religion-inspired arts, etc.–rather than theological training for the pulpit. No doubt some undergrad Religion majors do go on to seminary or div school, but so do graduates in other majors (including Philosophy, among many others). And of those who do graduate from seminary or div school and seek a pulpit, the “lucky” ones are likely to start out with very low-paying positions in very small churches. I once knew a young, fully-credentialed Episcopalian priest whose first church was so tiny that she had to work 4 nights a week as a bartender to earn enough to pay the bills. Of course, if she had been Catholic (the largest Christian denomination in the US), she never would have gotten a gig as a priest, due to rigid gender discrimination (and I don’t have the exact breakdown, but just anecdotally, nearly every Religion major I can ever recall was a woman). If you’re good at it, you might be able to move up to bigger congregtions pver time, but even then, it tends to be a pretty low-paying occupation. Jewish rabbis are well paid–an average of $140K, according to a 2010 survey. The average Christian minister, on the other hand, makes about $40K, and the average Catholic priest even less. A small handful of ministers in Evangelical Protestant mega-churches pull down mega-bucks, but they’re a tiny fraction of the profession.
Maybe he meant only union welders 
I wonder what the average pay for actual philosophers is, the people who are paid to be philosophers for a living. After all, a philosophy major could just be working as a plumber, not as a philosopher.
Does anyone else have Edie Brickell lyrics running through their head from this thread?
"I’m not aware of too many things
I know what I know, if you know what I mean
Philosophy is the talk on a cereal box
Religion is the smile on a dog
I’m not aware of too many things
I know what I know, if you know what I mean, d-doo yeah
Choke me in the shallow waters
Before I get too deep
What I am is what I am
Are you what you are or what?
What I am is what I am
Are you what you are, or? "
Now ya do
Well, you’re basically talking about philosophy professors, who are the only people “paid to be philosophers for a living.” According to salary.com, the median annual salary for a philosophy professor is $89,913, with a 25th-75th percentile range of $70,723 to $142,831. I can’t vouch for the reliability of the source, but that sounds about right; possibly a bit low because some philosophy professors teach philosophy but don’t actually do philosophy, in the sense that they aren’t producing original philosophical work. Those people would generally be clustered at less-selective academic institutions where pay scales are somewhat lower.
This is broadly consistent with (anonymized) actual salary data published in 2010 in the Philosophical Gourmet, a reputable source widely read by professional philosophers. For a “major public research university with a reputable and PGR-ranked philosophy department and Ph.D. program,” salaries ranged from $65,435 for the most recently hired assistant professor, up to $194,800 for the most highly compensated full professor–though most full professors were well below that figure. The median salary for this 21-member faculty was $89,500—very close to the figure cited by salary.com. Faculty salaries haven’t changed much since 2010.
Salaries would tend to be higher at private research universities and lower at schools without Ph.D. programs in philosophy. And salaries vary quite widely among public research universities, so the figures cited by the Philosophical Gourmet may not be representative. For many public universities, faculty salaries are accessible online. For our public flagship, philosophy faculty salaries currently range from $77,000 for the lowest-paid associate professor to $158,000 for the highest-paid full professor, except for one member of the philosophy faculty who holds a joint appointment with the law school, whose salary is considerably higher. There are no assistant professors, indicating there’s been no recent entry-level hiring.
I was a philosophy major. Most of the people I know who were philosophers applied what they learned in jobs that required writing/critical thinking skills — law is a big one. Also, journalism, public relations, marketing, consumer research. A number of philosophy majors I know got very cushy jobs as consultants. In my personal circle of friends, I know no philosophy majors who wound up “flipping burgers” or other dead-end job that people who fear humanities/liberal arts warn us about.
One of the best pieces of career advice I ever got was from an editor from a summer writing camp I attended as a rising high school senior. He told us would-be journalists to major in something we could not learn on the job. Don’t major in English. Don’t major in mass communications. Don’t major in marketing. He urged us to major in something that cultivated our curiosity and thinking skills, something that could be applied to any job, not just journalism. So I chose philosophy.
Majoring in philosophy taught me skills that would have taken years for me to acquire via experience in the workplace. I have no regrets. Would do it all over again. And, would (and have) encouraged my kids to consider majoring in something they can’t learn on the job. If my daughter came home one day and said she wanted to major in philosophy, I would be quite proud.
Depends on your market. In my market, college-educated folks - even with a philosophy degree - are in much higher demand than welders, and they make more too.
I think most people who dump on philosophy majors have no idea what it takes to be a philosophy major. It’s one of the more difficult, rigorous and analytical majors you can choose, and teaches a skill set that can be applied successfully to any number of fields.
“The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.” - John Gardner.
A complete person, of course, should be able to weld a sculpture of a philosopher, but that’s a different problem.
In the end, half an education (only philosophy OR only trade) is half an education.
My son majored in philosophy but got his job due to his part-time work experience. One interesting thing I discovered from his college studies was how physics and philosophy are intertwined.