Only 27 percent of graduates have job related to major

The vast majority of college grads in the U.S. work in jobs that aren’t strictly related to their degrees, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

In 2010, only 62 percent of U.S. college graduates had a job that required a college degree. Further, the report estimated that just 27 percent of college graduates had a job that was closely related to their bachelor's degree.

Individuals with graduate degrees, including doctors and lawyers, are not included in the data on undergraduate majors. With that exclusion, there are many jobs that simply don't require a particular field of study.

The report also found that finding a job related to one's degree or major is slightly easier in big cities. Chances for finding jobs which require degrees improve up to six percent and the chance of people working in the particular field of their undergraduate degree increased up to nine percent in a big city.

According to the report, “big cities have more job openings and offer a wider variety of job opportunities that can potentially fit the skills of different workers.” And for those who are un- or underemployed and looking for work, the report found that the larger local labor market in a big city "makes it easier and less costly for workers to search for jobs."