A propos this, a telling observation from a longtime reader:

Remember how our generation was the “What are you going to do with that?” era, if anyone ventured to say that their major was in the humanities? Hardly anyone is now tempted by the humanities since the message that economic life in America is fundamentally precarious has been one of the few messages about reality that has been successfully imparted to young people.

Economic life in America is, in fact, precarious, so the students have gotten the correct message.  Add to that the huge cost of higher education, and it shouldn't be surprising that 1 in 4 undergraduates at the University of Chicago major in economics!  I suspect the numbers are even more skewed away from the humanities at other schools.  

UPDATE:  Some amusing observations from another longtime reader, S. Wallerstein:

I entered college in 1964 and majored in English and Comparative Literature, which was a cool major then.  I never gave the job market a thought nor did my friends since everyone was sure that if worse came to worst, the New York City welfare department almost automatically hired all college graduates as case workers, which, I gather, is no longer true.  There was still rent control in New York and it was still possible to rent a cheap apartment in  Manhattan.

I recall talking to a business major in a bar one night.  He complained to me that girls wouldn't go out with business majors because it was so uncool.  I commiserated with him and suggested that he switch to the humanities.  As the Bible says, to everything  there is a season.