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Data on display
Business careers: Occupations, earnings, and prospects

Domingo Angeles and Brian Roberts | December 2016

You might want a business degree for its versatility. Or perhaps you’re looking for a business career that pays well or that offers good job prospects. Whatever your motivation, you’ll find wide variation in occupations, wages, and opportunities for business majors, according to data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The chart shows the 10 occupations with the largest percentage of college graduates ages 16 to 34 who have a bachelor’s degree in business, according to ACS data. The size of a bubble indicates the percentage of business degree holders in that occupation in 2014. Overall, these occupations accounted for about 36 percent of all bachelor’s-level graduates with a business degree.

A bubble’s placement on the chart indicates the occupation’s wages for workers with a business degree as well as the occupation’s overall projected growth, according to BLS data. Compare the bubble’s vertical placement—the occupation’s overall projected growth rate—with 6.5 percent, which is the average for all occupations from 2014 to 24. And compare its horizontal placement—the median annual wage for those in the occupation with a business degree—with $36,200, which is the median for all occupations in 2015.

As the chart shows, seven of the occupations had wages for business-degree holders that were higher than the median for all occupations; six are projected to have average or faster-than-average growth. Accountants and auditors, the occupation with the largest share of business degree holders, is both a high-wage and a high-growth occupation. Hover over the chart to explore the data.

More educational attainment data are available from the ACS, a monthly household survey by the U. S. Census Bureau. Projections data from BLS are produced biennially.