Graduated and looking for a job? These college majors are the most employable—and highest paying

Fast Company

16-05-2025

May often brings not only flowers, but also a highly anticipated—and in some cases, dreaded—event for college seniors: graduation. On their final day as students, they will walk across the stage to applause from peers, receive their diplomas, and start their lives as adults. Some of them will already have jobs lined up, while others may still be looking.
A recently updated report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, suggests that how employable those graduating seniors are could well be influenced by which college majors they chose in their freshman and sophomore years. What do those choices say about a student's future job prospects? The report offers a number of insights—some more surprising than others.
Here's a rundown of the highlights.
College majors with the best early-career salaries
Chemical Engineering, $80,000
Computer Engineering, $80,000
Computer Science, $80,000
Early career, defined as those in the workforce that fall between the ages of 22 and 27, doesn't get much better than this, according to the report. These three majors, with the exact same median early-career salaries, will hopefully get you somewhere close to 80K.
Something to note, though: Pay attention to the unemployment rates that we talk about in a few paragraphs.
College majors with the best mid-career salaries
Chemical Engineering, $120,000
Electrical Engineering, $120,000
Computer Engineering, $122,000
Aerospace Engineering, $125,000
These degrees will all help you get a six-figure salary mid-career, defined as those working who are between the ages of 35 and 45.
Aerospace engineering does not rank in the top three for starting salaries, but this major has the highest median salary of all of the majors in this report.
Best college majors for finding a job (based on unemployment rates)
Special education, 1% unemployment rate
Civil engineering, 1% unemployment rate
Animal and plant sciences, 1% unemployment rate
Construction services, 0.7% unemployment rate
Nutrition services, 0.4% unemployment rate
The top five college majors for finding a job are those with the lowest unemployment rates, all sitting at 1% or less.
Construction services, in particular, boasts a mid-career median salary of six figures, at $100,000. Overall, these fields might be the best for finding a job in an uncertain market, though things can always change.
College majors with the highest unemployment rate
Computer Engineering, 7.5% unemployment rate
Physics, 7.8% unemployment rate
Anthropology, 9.4% unemployment rate
Yes, you read that correctly. A high early-career salary does not necessarily mean a low unemployment rate. Even though computer engineering ranks in our top three for both early- and mid-career salaries, it has one of the highest unemployment rates of all of the majors within this report.
Physics is also notable, considering that a majority of graduates with this major also have graduate degrees. But according to the report, physics is one of the majors struggling the most in the job market.
College majors with the highest underemployment rate
Medical technicians, 57.9% underemployment rate
Performing arts, 62.3% underemployment rate
Criminal justice, 67.2% underemployment rate
The underemployment rate is a term used to describe the share of college graduates working in jobs that typically do not require a college degree (the share of staff without a college degree is over 50%). These majors include fields that do not always require college educations before starting a job.