Occupations typically requiring postsecondary education gained 5.3 million jobs, May 2007–16

October 26, 2017

Occupations that typically require postsecondary education for entry gained 5.3 million jobs from May 2007 to May 2016. Only two industries lost jobs during this period for occupations that typically require postsecondary education for entry. Manufacturing lost 100,750 jobs in this education category, and retail trade lost 20,150 jobs.

Healthcare and social assistance gained more than 1.9 million jobs in occupations that typically require postsecondary education for entry. Common occupations in healthcare include physicians and dentists, which typically need a doctoral or professional degree for entry. Another common healthcare occupation is registered nurses, which typically must have a bachelor’s degree. Healthcare technologists and technicians often need an associate’s degree or a postsecondary nondegree award.

Professional, scientific, and technical services (1.2 million); educational services (579,440); and management of companies and enterprises (386,440) also gained jobs in occupations that typically require postsecondary education for entry.

These data are from the Occupational Employment Statistics program. The typical entry-level education requirements assigned to each occupation are based on research by the Employment Projections program. The typical entry-level education requirement for an occupation may differ from the educational level of workers in the occupation and from the education employers require for individual jobs in the occupation. To learn more, see “Employment trends by typical entry-level education requirement.” We also have more data available by typical entry-level education requirement. Educational services and healthcare and social assistance include private and state and local government schools and hospitals. Beginning with the May 2014 data, gambling establishments and casino hotels owned by local governments were counted in arts, entertainment, and recreation and accommodation and food services, instead of government.