In an uncertain job market, it’s not unusual for workers—current and prospective—to turn to the sure thing. And while there’s no guarantees in life, a new report reveals the 10 majors that tend to lead to the highest-paying jobs for new graduates in their first four years after school. Knowing what leads to relatively higher earnings can provide something of a guiding light for Gen Z college students nervous about entering a turbulent economy rife with layoffs and, according to some experts, on the precipice of disruption.
The top-paying majors won’t be much of a surprise—STEM fields reign supreme, according to a report from the HEA Group, a higher education research and consulting agency. The report also took a look at what the most popular majors tend to pay, using data from the U.S. Department of Education that reflects the average pay for four years after graduating, and only three lead to early-career salaries over $50,000 per year, on average.
Operations research—leading to jobs for analysts who use math to evaluate and improve a company’s performance—leads to the highest average early-career earnings, at just over $112,000 per year. There are only 104,200 jobs for operations research analysts, per BLS data, but the field is expected to grow faster than average by 23% this decade.
Computer science is the most popular of the highly paid majors, and degree-earners bring in around $105,000 per year—well above the median U.S. income of around $57,000 for full-time workers. Meanwhile, the most popular major that pays the most is nursing, averaging over $76,000 per year, while a communications major can expect to earn around $49,000.
Any aggregate list will give an incomplete look at what graduates can expect to earn. There are other factors that go into starting salaries, including location and company (a communications professional might earn more right out of school at a tech company than at a nonprofit, for example).
“College isn’t just about the money. There are many intangible aspects that salary data simply won’t measure,” the HEA Group notes. But “this new salary data allows prospective students to make a more informed decision as they examine individual programs at colleges they are considering.”
Though there’s an ongoing debate about the value of a college degree for U.S. workers when it’s often accompanied by an ever-increasing student debt balance, research has found it’s still usually worth it, and the HEA Group’s report also shows that those with a bachelor’s degree tend to outearn holders of associate’s degrees and postsecondary certificates.
That said, there are always shades of gray. A graduate with an associate’s degree in a STEM field can still do pretty well: A physical science associate’s degree can lead to early-career earnings near $85,000 per year. And an associate’s degree in nursing yields earnings just under $67,000 per year on average, close to nursing bachelor’s degree holders.
The average salaries for the highest-paying majors for bachelor’s degree recipients are:
- Operations Research: $112,000
- Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering: $109,000
- Computer Science: $105,000
- Marine Transportation: $104,000
- Computer Engineering: $99,000
- Veterinary Medicine: $97,500
- Petroleum Engineering: $97,000
- Systems Engineering: $95,000
- Pharmaceutical Science: $94,000
- Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering: $92,000
The average salaries for the most popular majors for bachelor’s degree recipients are (in descending order from most popular):
- Business Administration: $58,000
- Nursing: $76,500
- Psychology: $43,000
- Criminal Justice: $47,000
- Accounting: $64,000
- Communications: $49,000
- Teacher Education: $42,000
- Biology: $49,000
- Liberal Arts and Humanities: $44,000
- Health and Physical Education: $47,000
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