Top In demand Degrees

We keep hearing that the way to get ahead is with an engineering or computer science degree. Studying business can also be a good idea. But which degree exactly will make you most desirable to employers? Now a just-released study from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), a Bethlehem, PA non-profit that links college career placement offices with employers, reveals which majors its members are looking for among the class of 2015.

NACE got responses to questionnaires it sent out from mid-August through early October from 260 companies and organizations, asking about their plans to hire people who will be graduating from college and graduate school in 2015. The respondents were mostly big companies like Cargill, Chevron, Kimberly-Clark, Procter & Gamble and Schlumberger, but the group also included tiny non-profits like The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

So which majors did employers most want? NACE broke out the top 10 degrees for those earning bachelor’s, master’s and doctorates. We’ve put together three charts below showing the specific degrees most in demand and the number of respondents who said they would hire in each discipline. For bachelor’s and master’s graduates, finance, accounting and computer science take the top three slots. For those at the doctorate level, the top three degrees are all in engineering—chemical, electrical and computer engineering.

But social science and humanities majors need not despair. Another chart in the report shows that 26 employers are planning to hire psychology majors, 22 will hire political science/international relations majors and 19 are looking for sociology majors. In the humanities, 19 employers want English language and literature majors, 17 are looking for history majors and 14 will hire foreign language and literature majors. Social work ranks at the bottom of the social sciences majors, with only seven employers, and gender studies at the bottom of the humanities degrees, with only 10. But keep in mind that you can tailor your job search to your chosen field. Social work majors can apply to social service agencies and government positions while gender studies majors may look for work at a nonprofit that deals with domestic abuse or an organization that promotes women’s leadership like the Girl Scouts.

Still, if you want to embark on a field where there is excess demand and high salaries, and you have an aptitude or interest in finance or computer science, many doors will open for you, as you’ll see from the charts below.