College graduates in the class of 2016 with bachelor’s degrees in chemical engineering can expect an average starting salary of $63,400 when they graduate in the spring. Computer engineers are close behind, at $63,300. Next come electrical engineering graduates with starting salaries of $61,200.
This is the 45th year that Michigan State University’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute has run the most comprehensive survey of its kind to gauge employers’ plans for hiring new graduates in the coming year. This year CERI collected data from 4,700 employers who recruit on campuses across the country. It reaches them through career offices at 200 schools, including Northwestern, MIT and a range of state universities. The survey ran from late August through September.
To calculate starting salaries Philip Gardner, MSU economist, lead author of the survey and head of Michigan State’s career office, says that he collected at least 50 salary reports for each of 35 college majors, from software design to social work, and averaged out the starting pay for students graduating in each field. His numbers don’t include commissions, stipends, bonuses or allowances for moving or other incentives. As was the case last year, engineering and computer degrees paid the most generous starting salaries, all in the $60,000 range.
To my surprise, construction ranked next, in ninth place, at $50,000. Call me clueless but I didn’t even know you could major in construction in college. But a number of schools offer it, like the undergraduate major in construction management at Utica College in Utica, NY. Utica’s website quotes the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ prediction that there will be 1.6 million new jobs in the field by 2022. The Pennsylvania College of Technology at Penn State also offers a Construction Management major. The only non-STEM (science technology, engineering and math) majors in the top 15 are economics ($46,300) and human resources ($45,700).
The excellent news for students finishing their bachelor’s degrees in 2016 is that college hiring is seriously rising in 2016, expected to jump 15% over last year. This is the second year of significant growth. Last year starting salaries climbed 16% over 2014.
See our slideshow above for the 15 best-paying bachelor’s degrees in 2016, according to CERI. And you can check out this story and slide show to see which majors are projected to pay the lowest starting salaries next year. Clue: advertising, history and public relations majors all start at rock bottom.
See also: The Industries Hiring The Most College Grads In 2016
