BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

The College Majors Whose Starting Salaries Have Increased The Most

This article is more than 9 years old.

At a time when the news media seems to report only bad news about recent college grads seeking employment, a non-profit group called the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) is shining a ray of light onto the jobs picture for new grads. According to new data derived from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau and surveys from some 400,000 employers, salaries for college graduates who have managed to find work in their fields climbed 7.5% over last year, to an average of $48,700.

Driving that increase are especially striking gains among communications majors and those who graduated with computer science degrees. Despite the hype about computer science grads taking home top salaries, in 2013 their average salaries had dropped by 2.5% compared to 2012. This year the trend reversed, with computer science grads earning 6.1% more than they did in 2013. The overall starting salary for that discipline is $62,000, according to the NACE report. For those who majored in straight computer science, salaries hiked 5.3%, to an average of $67,500. Those who majored in information sciences and systems had an even greater increase of 6.5%, but a lower starting salary of $58,800.

The discipline with the second-greatest jump: communications, which was up 10.1% over 2013. Though communications majors’ salaries increased, their overall starting salary, at $48,300, was significantly lower than the salaries for engineering and computer science, the two top-earning majors. The greatest gains came for those who majored in communications specifically, rather than in a related discipline that fell under the communications umbrella. Communications majors’ salaries increased by 17.5% to $52,300.

The field with the next-greatest gain was a broad category NACE bills as “mathematics and sciences” which increased by 3.7% to $44,300. While math majors saw their salaries climb just 1.4%, to $50,500, architecture majors had a healthy increase of 10.1% to $45,900.

Business majors are also enjoying a decent salary increase of 2.9% over 2013, to $57,300. Among business majors, those who got degrees in logistics/materials management and marketing had the greatest gains of 11.4% and 10.8% respectively.

Much has been written about the struggling job market for humanities and social sciences majors. The NACE survey shows that humanities majors eked out a salary increase of 1% from last year to $38,000. But the increase was mostly due to the fact that criminal justice majors did well, with salaries rising 11.5% to $38,800. By contrast, history majors faced a salary drop of 6.4% to $39,400.

Education majors did better than history majors, with an overall salary decrease of 0.2% to $40,300. Under the education umbrella however, two majors posted even smaller increases. Elementary teacher education majors saw their salaries gain 1.8% to $39,700 and physical education teachers had a 0.7% gain to $43,000.

While the salary news for new grads is mostly good, what about the employment picture? NACE ran an employment survey from February through the end of April of this year that asked 2014 graduates whether they had found work. Only 30.1% had landed jobs prior to graduation. It also ran a survey of graduates of the class of 2013 and found that six months after graduation, 61.5% were employed full time. While the job market remains tough for new graduates, at least the majority of those who find jobs are enjoying salaries that have climbed from a year ago.