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 US 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.
Read the rest of the Yahoo Finance story HERE.
