Degrees in demand
220 college programs, ranked by the projected job openings they lead to through 2034. Business Administration comes first at 243,019 openings a year. The correction that makes this list usable: it counts only openings in occupations that actually require a degree. Without that filter the top of the list is jobs you need no degree for, and the programs mapped to them award as few as eight degrees a year nationally.
The number in the openings column is an assumption, and here is its size
A job opening does not belong to one major. General and Operations Managers can be filled by a business administration graduate, a finance graduate, a management graduate or several others, and no federal dataset publishes how those hires actually split. So each occupation's openings are divided evenly across the degree programs the NCES crosswalk says qualify for it. That is a modelling choice, not a measurement.
The alternative, giving every program the full opening count of every occupation it maps to, inflates badly: Business Administration's undivided total is 1,343,000, or 5.5 times the 243,019 shown, because those same openings would also be credited to a dozen other business programs. Both figures are in the data; the smaller, honest one is what the tables rank on.
Two filters that change the answer
First, only occupations whose BLS typical entry-level education is an associate's degree or higher are counted. Without it the list is led by Business Operations Support and Health Aides: real jobs with real openings, but not jobs a degree is required for. Second, a program must award at least 1,000 degrees a year. Without that, Accounting and Computer Science ranks near the top on 3 degrees awarded nationally, purely because of the occupations it maps to.
Degrees leading to the most job openings a year
Ranked by projected annual openings in the occupations each program feeds, with each occupation's openings divided across the programs that qualify for it. Business Administration leads at 243,019, almost entirely on the strength of one occupation: General and Operations Managers.
| # | Program | Biggest occupation it feeds | OpeningsPer year, attributed | DegreesAwarded a year | Median wageOf those jobs | Growth2024-34 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Business Administration CIP 52.02 · BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES | General and Operations Managers 36 of 43 mapped jobs need a degree | 243,019 | 350,604 | $107,118 | +7.5% |
| 2 | Registered Nursing CIP 51.38 · HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS | Registered Nurses 6 of 6 mapped jobs need a degree | 218,250 | 307,146 | $102,193 | +8.2% |
| 3 | Finance and Financial Management Services CIP 52.08 · BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES | General and Operations Managers 15 of 21 mapped jobs need a degree | 123,621 | 50,354 | $103,907 | +5.3% |
| 4 | Business/Commerce CIP 52.01 · BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES | General and Operations Managers 14 of 17 mapped jobs need a degree | 107,462 | 54,176 | $113,036 | +5.3% |
| 5 | Clinical CIP 42.28 · PSYCHOLOGY | Managers, All Other 14 of 16 mapped jobs need a degree | 87,389 | 38,313 | $80,226 | +6.5% |
| 6 | Human Resources Management and Services CIP 52.10 · BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES | Human Resources Specialists 13 of 13 mapped jobs need a degree | 67,999 | 21,334 | $78,696 | +5.0% |
| 7 | Teacher Education and Professional Development CIP 13.13 · EDUCATION | Elementary School Teachers 29 of 30 mapped jobs need a degree | 65,406 | 36,146 | $63,335 | +0.8% |
| 8 | International Business CIP 52.11 · BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES | General and Operations Managers 4 of 4 mapped jobs need a degree | 64,926 | 5,611 | $101,549 | +3.8% |
| 9 | Teacher Education and Professional Development CIP 13.12 · EDUCATION | Elementary School Teachers 10 of 13 mapped jobs need a degree | 64,162 | 92,104 | $58,623 | +1.4% |
| 10 | Accounting and Related Services CIP 52.03 · BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES | Accountants and Auditors 10 of 15 mapped jobs need a degree | 61,225 | 65,682 | $105,631 | +6.9% |
| 11 | Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods CIP 52.13 · BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES | General and Operations Managers 12 of 12 mapped jobs need a degree | 60,199 | 63,169 | $108,891 | +7.2% |
| 12 | Public Administration CIP 44.04 · PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS | General and Operations Managers 6 of 10 mapped jobs need a degree | 51,912 | 12,685 | $114,333 | +5.3% |
| 13 | Data Analytics CIP 30.71 · MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES | Management Analysts 9 of 9 mapped jobs need a degree | 50,900 | 14,091 | $114,567 | +9.9% |
| 14 | Teaching English or French as a Second or Foreign Language CIP 13.14 · EDUCATION | Elementary School Teachers 6 of 6 mapped jobs need a degree | 49,923 | 3,181 | $55,729 | -0.2% |
| 15 | Computer/Information Technology Administration and Management CIP 11.10 · COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES | Managers, All Other 12 of 13 mapped jobs need a degree | 46,066 | 48,745 | $112,915 | +6.4% |
| 16 | Computer and Information Sciences CIP 11.01 · COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES | Software Developers 14 of 14 mapped jobs need a degree | 45,424 | 106,991 | $120,784 | +10.5% |
| 17 | Allied Health Diagnostic CIP 51.09 · HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS | Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary 12 of 19 mapped jobs need a degree | 43,798 | 59,353 | $92,007 | +9.5% |
| 18 | Mental and Social Health Services and Allied Professions CIP 51.15 · HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS | Child, Family, and School Social Workers 14 of 19 mapped jobs need a degree | 43,664 | 26,670 | $64,471 | +6.0% |
| 19 | Security Science and Technology CIP 43.04 · HOMELAND SECURITY, LAW ENFORCEMENT, FIREFIGHTING AND RELATED PROTECTIVE SERVICES | Accountants and Auditors 11 of 19 mapped jobs need a degree | 42,237 | 7,642 | $91,054 | +6.8% |
| 20 | Social Work CIP 44.07 · PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS | Child, Family, and School Social Workers 9 of 9 mapped jobs need a degree | 40,900 | 55,568 | $65,084 | +6.3% |
| 21 | Pharmacy CIP 51.20 · HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS | Managers, All Other 14 of 14 mapped jobs need a degree | 40,577 | 16,907 | $139,151 | +8.1% |
| 22 | Specialized Sales CIP 52.19 · BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES | Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists 3 of 12 mapped jobs need a degree | 40,443 | 2,974 | $93,645 | +5.1% |
| 23 | Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations CIP 52.07 · BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES | General and Operations Managers 4 of 5 mapped jobs need a degree | 40,147 | 6,496 | $116,295 | +4.4% |
| 24 | Hospitality Administration/Management CIP 52.09 · BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES | Business Operations Specialists, All Other 6 of 12 mapped jobs need a degree | 39,859 | 9,703 | $83,096 | +3.6% |
| 25 | Rehabilitation and Therapeutic Professions CIP 51.23 · HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS | Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary 10 of 11 mapped jobs need a degree | 39,070 | 28,130 | $84,250 | +9.0% |
| 26 | Parks CIP 31.03 · PARKS, RECREATION, LEISURE, FITNESS, AND KINESIOLOGY | General and Operations Managers 3 of 5 mapped jobs need a degree | 36,683 | 2,224 | $105,150 | +4.5% |
| 27 | Marketing CIP 52.14 · BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES | Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists 9 of 9 mapped jobs need a degree | 36,406 | 47,853 | $117,053 | +5.7% |
| 28 | Public Relations CIP 09.09 · COMMUNICATION, JOURNALISM, AND RELATED PROGRAMS | Training and Development Specialists 15 of 17 mapped jobs need a degree | 33,242 | 18,473 | $91,627 | +5.5% |
| 29 | Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications CIP 11.09 · COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES | Software Developers 10 of 10 mapped jobs need a degree | 32,588 | 5,608 | $125,137 | +12.7% |
| 30 | Educational Administration and Supervision CIP 13.04 · EDUCATION | Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary 5 of 5 mapped jobs need a degree | 32,003 | 33,955 | $97,599 | -1.0% |
Degrees whose occupations are growing fastest
The same programs sorted by projected growth through 2034 instead of volume, restricted to those with at least 5,000 attributed openings so a small program cannot win on a percentage. Allied Health and Medical Assisting Services leads at 21.2%.
| # | Program | Biggest occupation it feeds | OpeningsPer year, attributed | DegreesAwarded a year | Median wageOf those jobs | Growth2024-34 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Allied Health and Medical Assisting Services CIP 51.08 · HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS | Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary 3 of 10 mapped jobs need a degree | 27,464 | 16,740 | $70,066 | +21.2% |
| 2 | Operations Research CIP 14.37 · ENGINEERING | Operations Research Analysts 3 of 3 mapped jobs need a degree | 5,047 | 1,608 | $91,678 | +20.7% |
| 3 | Public Policy Analysis CIP 44.05 · PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS | Medical and Health Services Managers 7 of 8 mapped jobs need a degree | 8,925 | 5,117 | $115,546 | +19.2% |
| 4 | Microbiological Sciences and Immunology CIP 26.05 · BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES | Medical and Health Services Managers 10 of 10 mapped jobs need a degree | 10,271 | 4,558 | $110,043 | +17.8% |
| 5 | Data Science CIP 30.70 · MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES | Software Developers 8 of 8 mapped jobs need a degree | 15,561 | 10,127 | $143,169 | +16.4% |
| 6 | Mathematics and Computer Science CIP 30.08 · MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES | Software Developers 9 of 9 mapped jobs need a degree | 17,374 | 1,829 | $139,400 | +15.3% |
| 7 | Communication Disorders Sciences and Services CIP 51.02 · HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS | Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary 3 of 3 mapped jobs need a degree | 14,464 | 22,209 | $98,072 | +14.8% |
| 8 | Computer Science CIP 11.07 · COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES | Software Developers 13 of 13 mapped jobs need a degree | 27,249 | 87,394 | $127,384 | +14.3% |
| 9 | Health Professions Education CIP 51.32 · HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS | Medical and Health Services Managers 15 of 17 mapped jobs need a degree | 17,961 | 4,672 | $99,357 | +14.0% |
| 10 | Information Science/Studies CIP 11.04 · COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES | Software Developers 7 of 7 mapped jobs need a degree | 17,068 | 21,772 | $140,273 | +13.9% |
| 11 | Computer Engineering CIP 14.09 · ENGINEERING | Software Developers 7 of 7 mapped jobs need a degree | 15,756 | 20,780 | $134,158 | +13.1% |
| 12 | Biomathematics CIP 26.11 · BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES | Computer Occupations, All Other 13 of 13 mapped jobs need a degree | 6,872 | 3,945 | $106,214 | +12.8% |
| 13 | Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications CIP 11.09 · COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES | Software Developers 10 of 10 mapped jobs need a degree | 32,588 | 5,608 | $125,137 | +12.7% |
| 14 | Public Health CIP 51.22 · HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS | Medical and Health Services Managers 11 of 13 mapped jobs need a degree | 20,752 | 35,714 | $98,798 | +12.7% |
| 15 | Human Computer Interaction CIP 30.31 · MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES | Computer and Information Systems Managers 5 of 5 mapped jobs need a degree | 7,842 | 2,277 | $145,160 | +12.0% |
| 16 | Computational Science CIP 30.30 · MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES | Computer Occupations, All Other 7 of 7 mapped jobs need a degree | 5,191 | 2,578 | $112,559 | +12.0% |
| 17 | Management Information Systems and Services CIP 52.12 · BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES | Computer and Information Systems Managers 4 of 4 mapped jobs need a degree | 5,180 | 10,705 | $160,297 | +11.8% |
| 18 | Computer Engineering Technologies/Technicians CIP 15.12 · ENGINEERING/ENGINEERING-RELATED TECHNOLOGIES/TECHNICIANS | Software Developers 5 of 5 mapped jobs need a degree | 13,866 | 2,259 | $120,499 | +11.6% |
| 19 | Computer Programming CIP 11.02 · COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES | Software Developers 7 of 7 mapped jobs need a degree | 16,219 | 7,301 | $117,045 | +11.2% |
| 20 | Health and Medical Administrative Services CIP 51.07 · HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS | Managers, All Other 10 of 19 mapped jobs need a degree | 29,497 | 49,455 | $110,177 | +10.9% |
Degrees whose occupations pay the most
Openings-weighted median wage across the occupations each program feeds, same demand floor. This is what people already working in those jobs earn, not what graduates start on. Air Transportation tops it at $218,836.
| # | Program | Biggest occupation it feeds | OpeningsPer year, attributed | DegreesAwarded a year | Median wageOf those jobs | Growth2024-34 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Air Transportation CIP 49.01 · TRANSPORTATION AND MATERIALS MOVING | Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers 2 of 7 mapped jobs need a degree | 13,900 | 9,870 | $218,836 | +3.5% |
| 2 | Management Information Systems and Services CIP 52.12 · BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES | Computer and Information Systems Managers 4 of 4 mapped jobs need a degree | 5,180 | 10,705 | $160,297 | +11.8% |
| 3 | Legal Research and Advanced Professional Studies CIP 22.02 · LEGAL PROFESSIONS AND STUDIES | Lawyers 2 of 2 mapped jobs need a degree | 16,190 | 9,941 | $158,823 | +4.0% |
| 4 | Law CIP 22.01 · LEGAL PROFESSIONS AND STUDIES | Lawyers 6 of 6 mapped jobs need a degree | 18,690 | 36,920 | $152,024 | +3.8% |
| 5 | Human Computer Interaction CIP 30.31 · MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES | Computer and Information Systems Managers 5 of 5 mapped jobs need a degree | 7,842 | 2,277 | $145,160 | +12.0% |
| 6 | Data Science CIP 30.70 · MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES | Software Developers 8 of 8 mapped jobs need a degree | 15,561 | 10,127 | $143,169 | +16.4% |
| 7 | Information Science/Studies CIP 11.04 · COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES | Software Developers 7 of 7 mapped jobs need a degree | 17,068 | 21,772 | $140,273 | +13.9% |
| 8 | Mathematics and Computer Science CIP 30.08 · MULTI/INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES | Software Developers 9 of 9 mapped jobs need a degree | 17,374 | 1,829 | $139,400 | +15.3% |
| 9 | Pharmacy CIP 51.20 · HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS | Managers, All Other 14 of 14 mapped jobs need a degree | 40,577 | 16,907 | $139,151 | +8.1% |
| 10 | Computer Engineering CIP 14.09 · ENGINEERING | Software Developers 7 of 7 mapped jobs need a degree | 15,756 | 20,780 | $134,158 | +13.1% |
| 11 | Electrical and Computer Engineering CIP 14.47 · ENGINEERING | Architectural and Engineering Managers 5 of 5 mapped jobs need a degree | 6,202 | 2,230 | $133,383 | +6.8% |
| 12 | Electrical CIP 14.10 · ENGINEERING | Architectural and Engineering Managers 7 of 7 mapped jobs need a degree | 13,402 | 26,394 | $132,214 | +6.5% |
| 13 | Computer Science CIP 11.07 · COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES | Software Developers 13 of 13 mapped jobs need a degree | 27,249 | 87,394 | $127,384 | +14.3% |
| 14 | Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications CIP 11.09 · COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES | Software Developers 10 of 10 mapped jobs need a degree | 32,588 | 5,608 | $125,137 | +12.7% |
| 15 | Computer and Information Sciences CIP 11.01 · COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES | Software Developers 14 of 14 mapped jobs need a degree | 45,424 | 106,991 | $120,784 | +10.5% |
| 16 | Computer Engineering Technologies/Technicians CIP 15.12 · ENGINEERING/ENGINEERING-RELATED TECHNOLOGIES/TECHNICIANS | Software Developers 5 of 5 mapped jobs need a degree | 13,866 | 2,259 | $120,499 | +11.6% |
| 17 | Psychology CIP 42.01 · PSYCHOLOGY | Managers, All Other 6 of 6 mapped jobs need a degree | 5,192 | 145,693 | $117,748 | +6.0% |
| 18 | Marketing CIP 52.14 · BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES | Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists 9 of 9 mapped jobs need a degree | 36,406 | 47,853 | $117,053 | +5.7% |
| 19 | Computer Programming CIP 11.02 · COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCES AND SUPPORT SERVICES | Software Developers 7 of 7 mapped jobs need a degree | 16,219 | 7,301 | $117,045 | +11.2% |
| 20 | Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations CIP 52.07 · BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT, MARKETING, AND RELATED SUPPORT SERVICES | General and Operations Managers 4 of 5 mapped jobs need a degree | 40,147 | 6,496 | $116,295 | +4.4% |
Methodology
- Sources
- NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk links programs to occupations (415 CIP-4 codes, 687 SOC codes). BLS Employment Projections 2024-34 supplies annual openings and growth. BLS OEWS May 2025 supplies wages. IPEDS Completions 2024-25, degrees only, first majors supplies degree counts.
- What an opening is
- BLS projects average annual openings over 2024-34, combining growth in an occupation with replacement needs as people leave it. Replacement is usually the larger half, which is why big, older occupations generate more openings than small fast-growing ones. It is a decade average, not a forecast for one year.
- The attribution rule
- Openings for an occupation are divided by the number of degree-gated programs the crosswalk maps to it, then summed per program. This mirrors the divisor the Clema occupations pages already use in the opposite direction when attributing graduates to occupations. Wage and growth are weighted by the same attributed shares, so a program's wage figure reflects where its demand actually sits.
- Coverage and exclusions
- Degrees only: associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral, first majors, so certificates are out and a double major is counted once. Of 415 crosswalk programs, 349 have any degree-gated demand and 220 clear the 1,000-degree floor, covering 4,155,429 of 4,284,570 degrees (97%). Every occupation in the crosswalk that survives the education filter has an openings figure, so nothing is silently dropped for missing data.
- What this does not measure
- Whether graduates of a program actually enter the occupations it maps to. The crosswalk records which jobs a program prepares people for, not where they end up. It is also not a supply-and-demand ratio: for that, and for why the ratio only works on credential-gated pairs, see the graduates-per-opening analysis linked below.
The supply side, and your own cut of this
Demand is half the picture. For how many graduates each pipeline actually produces per opening, read graduates per opening across 17 CIP-to-SOC pairs, which does the ratio properly on pairs where it is defensible. For a different cut of this page, the BLS agent answers the state-level and single-occupation versions.
Frequently asked questions
Which degrees are most in demand?+
By projected annual job openings in occupations that require a degree: Business Administration (243,019), Registered Nursing (218,250), Finance and Financial Management Services (123,621), Business/Commerce (107,462), Clinical (87,389). Openings combine growth and replacement needs, so a large occupation with high turnover generates more of them than a small fast-growing one.
Why does business administration rank first?+
Because of one occupation, General and Operations Managers, which is enormous. That is worth seeing rather than hiding: the ranking measures the size of the job market a degree opens onto, not how likely any individual graduate is to reach it. Business administration also awards 350,604 degrees a year, so the competition for those openings is correspondingly large. This page deliberately shows demand and supply side by side instead of collapsing them into one score.
What does "attributed" openings mean?+
Each occupation's annual openings are divided evenly across the degree programs the NCES crosswalk says lead to it. No federal dataset publishes how a job's hires actually split across qualifying majors, so this is an assumption, not a measurement. The undivided figure is much larger: Business Administration's raw total is 5.5 times its attributed one, because it shares occupations with many other business programs.
Why are some big occupations missing?+
Because they do not require a degree, and this page ranks degrees. Only occupations whose BLS typical entry-level education is an associate's degree or higher are counted. Without that filter the top of the list is Business Operations Support and Health Aides, whose programs award 2,677 and 8 degrees a year respectively. For the no-degree side of the labour market, see the six-figure occupations that require no degree.
Why is there a degree-count floor?+
Because the crosswalk maps some tiny programs to very large occupations. Accounting and Computer Science awards 3 degrees a year nationally and would rank near the top without a floor, purely on the occupations it maps to. Requiring 1,000 degrees a year leaves 220 programs covering 97% of all US degrees.
Is this graduates per opening?+
No, and deliberately so. A supply-to-demand ratio needs a clean one-to-one match between a program and an occupation, which only holds for credential-gated pairs like nursing or radiologic technology. Clema publishes that analysis separately for 17 hand-vetted pairs; a 220-program sweep cannot support the same claim, so this page ranks demand and links there for the ratio.
What years is this?+
Openings and growth are BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, published August 2026, expressed as an average per year over that decade rather than a forecast for any single year. Wages are BLS OEWS May 2025. Degree counts are IPEDS Completions 2024-25, degrees only, first majors. The crosswalk is the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk.
Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · IPEDS Fall 2025–26 provisional. Openings are BLS 2024-34 projected annual averages, attributed across the programs that feed each occupation; the methodology section above states the assumption in full. All sources & release dates →
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