Which Degrees Have the Highest Unemployment in Mexico? These Five Rank Worst, IMCO Says

Ecology and environmental sciences is the degree with the highest unemployment rate in Mexico, according to data from the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, known as IMCO. The rate stands at 9.1% in the organization’s Compara Carreras 2026 report.

Environmental protection technology ranks second at 8.9%. Mining, extraction and metallurgy follows at 8.8%, while educational planning, evaluation and research ranks fourth at 8.6%. Biology completes the five degrees with the highest unemployment, at 7.5%.

At the other end of the scale, general social science programs recorded the lowest unemployment rate, at 0.3%. Primary-school teacher training followed at 0.9%, with secondary-school teacher training at 1.1%. Preschool teacher training recorded 1.2%, while public administration completed the five lowest-unemployment fields at 1.3%.

Three of the five fields with the lowest unemployment rates involve training teachers for preschool, primary and secondary education. IMCO said the unemployment rate for ecology and environmental sciences is more than 30 times higher than the rate for general social science programs, a difference of 8.8 percentage points.