Data from NCES.
Below is a detailed analysis of the top 5 degrees. The data is cross referenced between NCES and BLS and our own experience.
As we can see a business degree is the most popular with about 400,000 students graduating. This trend makes sense as BLS predicts this cluster to grow by 7% each year with about 590,000 jobs added each year for this category. (Note – We have not done the research on what kind of jobs or if they are all entry level). Entry level salary depending on roles could be $28K to a median pay of $70K.
Health related degree numbers are around 238,000 but the growth as per BLS is around 14%! This would mean that there would be more jobs in this area than the supply. Again, we need to be careful, as the supply demand analysis could show more data points on how much supply already exists vs new grads. As a quick analysis, this gives a good feel for degrees which will be low risk from a job stability standpoint. The entry level salary depending on the role could be $24K to a salary median around $55K.
Social Services degrees are growing by 11%. Graduation rate is around 160,000. BLS reports that the number of jobs per year growth could be in 300,000 range. Entry level salary $33K to median of $45K
Psychology degree students are also in demand. The growth reported by BLS is 14%. This falls under the Life Science category. We have an article just talking about this degree here –
http://ec2-50-17-125-142.compute-1.amazonaws.com/careerunleashed/what-are-the-tre…y-degree-holders/
Biological and Bio Medical Science – The growth for this field is average or slower as per BLS. This one just based on BLS data seems to be one where the jobs might not be growing as fast as the graduates are coming in. In BLS this is categorized under Life Science. The entry level salary could be $38K or lower depending on the role but average is right around $65K.
On a side note, we will write a separate article on this subject, the tenth in the above list is computers which will include developers. Here, based on BLS data, it seems like the number of graduates is less than the skillset needed. Our own experience recruiting in this field shows that Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotics is growing at a rapid pace. Data Science is a field that is also taking off, and because of this shortage in supply, companies look out for skills outside of the US. If you are inclined towards programming or Mathematics, this field will be growing at an extremely fast pace.
Abhijeet Narvekar – Abhi has his Masters in Industrial Engineering & Management. He has 20 years of experience in Leadership roles and currently is the CEO of The FerVID Group and Co-Founder of CareerUnleashed