Best degree programs for Purchasing Managers, ranked by enrollment
1 college programs and 35 schools train Purchasing Managers. Compare graduates per year, cost and pay, $148,080 median wage, 84,320 U.S. jobs. Federal data.
1 college programs at 35 schools train purchasing managers, graduating 800 people a year (IPEDS completions). The largest is Purchasing, Procurement/Acquisitions and Contracts Management. The job pays a median of $148,080 (BLS OEWS May 2025).
About purchasing managers
Plan, direct, or coordinate the activities of buyers, purchasing officers, and related workers involved in purchasing materials, products, and services. Includes wholesale or retail trade merchandising managers and procurement managers.
Fields of study that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.
1 degree programs that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 52.0202 | 800 | 100.0% | 35 | $43,506 | $25,000 |
Top 35 schools by graduates into this job
Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.
What purchasing managers earn
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
Top-paying states
Top-paying metro areas
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Where the jobs are, state by state
Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.
| State | Median pay | Jobs | Concentration | Schools | Graduates / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Californialimited | $159,830 | 7,470 | 0.76× | 1 | 246 |
| Marylandmoderate | $161,470 | 2,380 | 1.59× | 4 | 143 |
| Floridalimited | $133,410 | 3,960 | 0.74× | 2 | 82 |
| Missourilimited | $132,100 | 960 | 0.60× | 1 | 65 |
| Alabamamoderate | $130,710 | 1,520 | 1.32× | 3 | 52 |
| Oklahomalimited | $119,310 | 480 | 0.52× | 1 | 46 |
| Indianalimited | $126,880 | 1,190 | 0.69× | 1 | 39 |
| South Carolinamoderate | $131,720 | 830 | 0.66× | 3 | 27 |
| Michiganlimited | $142,120 | 2,780 | 1.16× | 1 | 21 |
| Virginiamoderate | $166,230 | 3,540 | 1.59× | 3 | 18 |
| Texaslimited | $134,670 | 9,640 | 1.26× | 2 | 13 |
| Illinoislimited | $153,370 | 4,160 | 1.26× | 1 | 12 |
| Massachusettslimited | $170,750 | 2,160 | 1.10× | 1 | 8 |
| Ohiolimited | $134,580 | 3,490 | 1.16× | 2 | 8 |
| District of Columbialimited | $175,720 | 1,110 | 2.92× | 1 | 4 |
| Georgialimited | $155,360 | 3,430 | 1.29× | 1 | 3 |
| Minnesotalimited | $144,810 | 1,340 | 0.84× | 1 | 3 |
| Utahlimited | $125,940 | 510 | 0.54× | 1 | 3 |
| Connecticutlimited | $138,680 | 1,420 | 1.54× | 1 | 2 |
| North Carolinalimited | $138,710 | 2,670 | 1.00× | 1 | 2 |
| Tennesseelimited | $137,060 | 1,460 | 0.82× | 2 | 2 |
| Oregonlimited | $137,190 | 980 | 0.92× | 1 | 1 |
Skills and tools
From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.
What they do day to day
- Develop and implement purchasing and contract management instructions, policies, and procedures.
- Locate vendors of materials, equipment or supplies, and interview them to determine product availability and terms of sales.
- Prepare bid awards requiring board approval.
- Direct and coordinate activities of personnel engaged in buying, selling, and distributing materials, equipment, machinery, and supplies.
- Review purchase order claims and contracts for conformance to company policy.
- Review, evaluate, and approve specifications for issuing and awarding bids.
- Administer online purchasing systems.
- Prepare and process requisitions and purchase orders for supplies and equipment.
Skills
- Speaking4.0
- Active Listening4.0
- Writing3.9
- Monitoring3.9
- Reading Comprehension3.9
- Critical Thinking3.8
- Active Learning3.3
- Mathematics3.1
Knowledge areas
- Administration and Management4.3
- Customer and Personal Service4.0
- English Language3.9
- Law and Government3.8
- Economics and Accounting3.7
- Computers and Electronics3.5
Abilities
- Oral Comprehension4.0
- Oral Expression4.0
- Speech Clarity3.9
- Deductive Reasoning3.9
- Fluency of Ideas3.9
- Speech Recognition3.9
Core activities
- Making Decisions and Solving Problems4.6
- Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates4.5
- Communicating with People Outside the Organization4.4
- Getting Information4.4
- Working with Computers4.4
- Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships4.3
Tools and technology
hotmarks an O*NET hot technologyHow to get in
How to become a Purchasing Manager
Job zone 4 of 5 · SVP 7.0 to < 8.0- Typical entry education
- Bachelor's degree
- Work experience needed
- 5 years or more
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 1 majors mapped to Purchasing Managers1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 52.0202Purchasing, Procurement/Acquisitions and Contracts Management
Related careers
Jobs O*NET identifies as close to this one, with their own pay and outlook.
Common questions
What degree do you need to become a Purchasing Manager?+
Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Purchasing, Procurement/Acquisitions and Contracts Management, which awarded 800 degrees in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Purchasing Manager?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Business Administration. Together they graduate about 800 people a year.
How much do purchasing managers earn?+
The median is $148,080 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $92,490 at the 10th percentile to $223,280 at the 90th. 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 purchasing managers growing?+
BLS projects a +3.1% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 6,400 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career?+
35 institutions 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 purchasing managers work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Materials Manager, Purchasing Manager, Procurement Manager, Purchasing Director among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 11-3061.
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 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected 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 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
Explore every U.S. college in one conversation
Clema turns plain-language questions into sourced answers across every U.S. institution — earnings, aid, acceptance, graduation, safety, and athletics from IPEDS, College Scorecard, and 10+ federal datasets, built in.
Free for teams up to 3 · No credit card