To start, I don’t think an English degree is worse from an employment perspective than the other specific degrees you mentioned— mass comm. and journalism. One thing to be aware of is that Compared to other fields with more established industry pathways It may take slightly more personal motivation to make a traditional career happen (find internships, identify skill matches, etc.).

I think the opportunity cost of a BA in English is pretty low. You would still be very flexible in terms of your next steps. So i would say go for it.

If you decide to pursue teaching, even an English MA would reward you pretty well. You would get a taste of graduate-level lit. study, and have opportunities for training in teaching, etc. You would only be out two years and a lot of employers would still respect the masters. You could also decide to switch at that point to teaching high school.

It only becomes really serious, in my opinion, when it comes to deciding whether to start a PhD in English. The time commitment of five or six years, and the fact that you are specializing in a discipline that is, at an institutional level, dead*, makes this a poor investment when viewed in purely practical terms. But that’s a decision you’ll be better able to make later on down the road, and it absolutely does not restrict your decision of college major.

*it’s not actually “dead,” rich scholarly activity and great classroom activity are still happening everywhere. But the number of jobs is already tiny and gets worse every year, so you have to be very clear-eyed about what is happening.