Wonder what’s ahead for American workers in 2012? The job market is relevant to you if you live, work or purchase commodities in the U.S., so most of the country is waiting with bated breath to see what comes next in terms of jobs, hiring and salaries in the coming year.

There’s good news and bad news: it appears that hiring in 2012 will be similar to hiring in 2011, which is bad news for those who are unemployed or looking for work… the only jobs that will be available are those which others have left because of dissatisfaction with wages, conditions or benefits. The good news is that if you already have a job, you may see a raise this year as many managers are considering slight wage increases as an incentive to workers to stay in their positions. Again, if you’re looking for a job, this is bad news—it means that those few jobs that were available in 2011, the ones recently vacated, will probably be fewer in 2012 as employers work harder to keep the employee’s they’ve got and lessen hiring and re-training.

An expert at CareerBuilder predicts that there may be a slight increase in new hires later in the year as companies work to increase their workplace’s diversity, focusing on more Latino and female hires and increasing the number of bilingual employees in order to respond effectively to a changing market.

According to surveys by CareerBuilder, 70% of mid- to large-size firms intend to create no new positions or are unsure of their hiring plans. This means that only 30% of these firms will be hiring new talent in the coming year. That being said, smaller businesses, those who employ fewer than 250 workers, have a more optimistic plan for 2012, with more of these businesses citing plans to hire than to maintain or decrease their current staff.

CBS News recently released an interesting list: the college majors with the highest unemployment rates. In an economy where finding a job is almost impossible, the one last bastion of hope is that getting a college education will set you apart just enough to get you at least a decent job. Yet, I still have recently matriculated friends who are doing jobs previously unthought-of for graduates with international studies or psychology degrees: these jobs include working a deli counter and waiting tables.

So, the recent list from CBS is particularly interesting… if so many graduates aren’t getting jobs, who are the hardest hit? The top three they have listed are: Psychology, Fine Arts, and U.S. History. Honestly, these don’t surprise me. These degrees are relatively open-ended when it comes to finding a post-baccalaureate job.

I do have something critical to say about their list, though, and it’s this: I wonder if they took into account degrees where continuing education is assumed. For example, I first noticed this when I saw that Architecture is number six on their list. I know an undergraduate student of architecture very well, so I asked him about it. He told me that it’s assumed you’ll get a Masters degree immediately after you graduate… you can’t even be a practicing architect without it!

So, of course job placement is low, he told me. His primary concern when he graduates isn’t going to be finding a good architecture job, it’s going to be getting into a good graduate program.

I wonder if the same might be true of degrees like psych and history. The people who get these degrees often have a longer-term plan, like getting a doctorate in psychology to become a psychologist or going on to law school.

The bottom line is this: even a college degree doesn’t guarantee you a job in this economy. That’s unfortunate news for the hoards of students who flock to universities across the country every year hoping for a leg up on the competition.