New Jersey·Office and Administrative Support Occupations·SOC 43-6014

Best Secretary programs in New Jersey, ranked by enrollment

Perform routine administrative functions such as drafting correspondence, scheduling appointments, organizing and maintaining paper and electronic files, or providing information to.

3 schools in New Jersey run programs that feed this job, graduating 4 people a year. The job pays a median of $50,260 in New Jersey across about 65,960 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledSecretaryOffice AssistantAdministrative Assistant (Admin Assistant)Administrative Secretary (Admin Secretary)PoliceClerk SecretaryStaff AssistantAlumni Secretary
Graduates / yr
4
in New Jersey
Median pay · New Jersey
$50,260
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
65,960
people employed
Schools
3
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
33%
across those schools
Median net price
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in New Jersey that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

1 programs in New Jersey that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in New Jersey (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own New Jersey page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
14
100.0%
3$25,993$9,500

Top 3 schools in New Jersey

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 0 of the 3 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1Mercer County Community College
West Windsor, NJ Public · 1 feeder programs
2Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science, General25%
2Salem Community College
Carneys Point, NJ Public · 1 feeder programs
1Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science, General40%
3UCNJ Union College of Union County, New Jersey
Cranford, NJ Public · 1 feeder programs
1Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science, General35%

All 3 schools in New Jersey

Every school in New Jersey with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in New Jersey that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
Mercer County Community CollegeWest WindsorPublic21
Salem Community CollegeCarneys PointPublic11
UCNJ Union College of Union County, New JerseyCranfordPublic11

What secretaries and administrative assistants earn in New Jersey

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in New Jersey
$50,260
Mean annual
$52,910
Jobs in state
65,960
What the range looks like
10th pct$36,150Median$50,26090th pct$72,180
Versus the national median
+5.7%

U.S. median $47,540. New Jersey pays above the national figure.

Job concentration
1.40×

Concentrated here: New Jersey employs more of this job per worker than the U.S. average.

Metro areas in New Jersey

Trenton-Princeton, NJ
$54,050median
3,680 jobs
Vineland, NJ
$47,210median
820 jobs
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ
$47,220median
2,530 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
-1.6%
Decline
Openings per year
202,800
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
-30,800
1,944,000 → 1,913,200
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
Plus short-term on-the-job training

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Secretaries and Administrative Assistants page.

How to become a Secretary

Job zone 2 of 5 · SVP Below 6.0
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
On-the-job training
Short-term on-the-job training

Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.

Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.

Ranges from a few days to one year of on-the-job training.

Top skills

Active ListeningSpeakingReading ComprehensionWritingMonitoringCritical Thinking

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in New Jersey

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 2 majors mapped to Secretaries and Administrative Assistants2 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 52.0401Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science, General
  • 52.0402Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary

Common questions

Answers for people weighing secretaries and administrative assistants programs in New Jersey.

What degree do you need to become a Secretary?+

High school diploma or equivalent is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Administrative Assistant and Secretarial Science, General, which awarded 4 degrees in New Jersey in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Secretary?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Business Operations Support and Assistant Services. Together they graduate about 4 people a year in New Jersey.

How much do secretaries and administrative assistants earn in New Jersey?+

The median is $50,260 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 5.7% above the U.S. median of $47,540. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for secretaries and administrative assistants growing?+

BLS projects a -1.6% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, decline, with roughly 202,800 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in New Jersey?+

3 institutions in New Jersey reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do secretaries and administrative assistants work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Secretary, Office Assistant, Administrative Assistant (Admin Assistant), Administrative Secretary (Admin Secretary) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 43-6014.

Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in other statesCaliforniaIdahoTexasAlabamaMinnesotaKentuckyGeorgiaLouisiana

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

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