Best College Majors for Getting a Job (Employment Rate + Salary Data)

Updated March 2026 · 8-minute read

Employment rate after graduation is one of the most searched criteria for choosing a college major — and also one of the most misleading if you look at it in isolation. This guide gives you real employment data, explains what actually drives post-graduation job success, and helps you identify the majors with the strongest job market outcomes.

What the Data Actually Shows

Based on Federal Reserve Bank of New York and BLS research on recent college graduates (ages 22–27):

• Overall bachelor's degree holders have an employment rate of 85–88% — roughly similar across most majors
• The bigger differences show up in underemployment (working jobs that don't require a college degree) and earnings — not raw employment rates
• Underemployment ranges from ~18% for engineering majors to ~50%+ for some arts majors

Majors with the Strongest Employment Outcomes

1. Nursing

Employment rate: 97%+ — one of the highest of any major. BSN graduates who pass the NCLEX have near-universal employment because demand structurally exceeds supply. Underemployment is essentially zero.

2. Computer Science / Software Engineering

Employment rate: 91–93%. High demand across industries means CS graduates have strong employment outcomes even outside pure software roles — finance, healthcare, defense, and e-commerce all hire heavily. Underemployment is low (~15%) relative to other fields.

3. Engineering (All Branches)

Employment rate: 89–94% depending on branch. Electrical and Computer Engineering have the lowest underemployment; Civil Engineering benefits from consistent public infrastructure demand. Engineering degrees have the lowest underemployment rate of any major cluster.

4. Accounting

Employment rate: 91–93%. CPA-track graduates have near-guaranteed Big 4 or regional firm offers at graduation. Financial reporting requirements create a structural floor for accounting demand.

5. Health Information Management / Health Administration

Employment rate: 88–92%. Growing healthcare administration sector, aging population, and regulatory complexity all drive demand. Less visible than nursing or medicine but consistently strong employment.

6. Education

Employment rate: 90%+ — teacher shortages in most states mean education graduates who want jobs have them. However, compensation is significantly lower than other high-employment majors, and it varies sharply by state.

7. Information Systems (MIS)

Employment rate: 88–91%. Corporate IT roles remain plentiful. MIS graduates occupy business analyst, systems analyst, and IT project manager roles at companies in every industry — broad exposure reduces sector-specific risk.

What Actually Determines Post-Graduation Employment

Major is one variable among several. The factors that most predict employment success at graduation:

• Internship experience: NACE data consistently shows internship experience is the single strongest predictor of full-time job offers. Students with 2+ internships land jobs faster and at higher salaries.
• Portfolio quality: In technical, creative, and data fields — what you've built matters as much as where you went to school.
• Network: Professional relationships formed through campus recruiting, internships, clubs, and professors produce referrals that bypass competitive applicant pools.
• Certifications: CPA for accounting, PE for engineering, Google Analytics for marketing, AWS certifications for CS — these add concrete credibility in specific hiring markets.
• Communication skills: Consistently cited by hiring managers across all industries as a differentiator — writing clearly and presenting confidently are undervalued in most degree programs.

Majors With Higher Underemployment Risk (And What to Do About It)

Some majors have higher underemployment rates — meaning graduates more often end up in jobs that don't use their degree. This is not a reason to avoid these majors, but a reason to be more intentional about your strategy:

• Liberal Arts, Humanities, History: ~45–55% underemployment without additional credential or experience
• Psychology (standalone BA): ~40% underemployment without graduate school or specific certification
• Fine Arts, Film: ~50%+ underemployment — portfolio and networking matter enormously

The fix for all of these is the same: internships + a specific skill stack + a clear professional narrative. English majors who learn data analytics, film majors who build production reels, and psychology majors who pursue HR certifications all dramatically improve their outcomes versus waiting for the degree alone to deliver results.