Petroleum engineering ranks as the highest-paying bachelor’s degree based on midcareer salary potential at $212,100, according to the 2024 College Salary Report by Payscale. Instrumentation technology paid the most for those with a two-year associate degree at $116,300.
Here’s Payscale’s list of highest-paying bachelor’s degrees at midcareer:
Petroleum engineering, $212,100
Operations research and industrial engineering, $202,600
Electrical engineering and computer science, $192,300
Interaction design, $178,800
Building science: $172,400
The highest-paying associate degrees at midcareer are:
Instrumentation technology, $116,300
Software engineering, $112,400
Radiation therapy, $109,500
Fire technology, $102,500
Instrumentation and control engineering, $101,900
“There’s no doubt that higher education is unaffordable, and employers are increasingly valuing alternative ways to gain skills, but the fact remains that a college degree significantly impacts earning power,” Amy Stewart, principal, of research & insights at Payscale, said in a press release. “Our research shows that college graduates earn 37% more than those with only a high school diploma.”
Ivy League and technical schools delivered some of the highest pay for four-year grads, according to Payscale. Some of the top schools were.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, $196,900
Princeton University, $194,100
United States Naval Academy, $187,800
Harvey Mudd College, $185,900
Babson College, $181,400
Nursing schools were among two-year institutions providing the highest pay at midcareer for grads:
Helene Fuld College of Nursing, $108,400
Laboure College, $103,200
Pacific Union College, $100,900
New York University, $98,100
Lawrence Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, $97,700
The U.S. is experiencing its largest immigration wave in generations, driven by millions of people from around the world seeking personal safety and economic opportunity. Immigrants are swelling the population and changing the makeup of the U.S. labor force in ways that are likely to reverberate through the economy for decades.
Since the end of 2020, more than nine million people have migrated to the U.S., after subtracting those who have left, coming both legally and illegally, according to estimates and projections from the Congressional Budget Office. That’s nearly as many as the number that came in the previous decade. Immigration has lifted U.S. population growth to almost 1.2% a year, the highest since the early 1990s. Without it, the U.S. population would be growing 0.2% a year because of declining birthrates and would begin shrinking around 2040, the CBO projects.
The surge in immigration has been controversial because most migrants didn’t come through regular legal channels. Less than 30%, or 2.6 million, are what the CBO counts as “lawful permanent residents,” which includes green-card holders and other immigrants who came through legal channels, such as family or employment-based visas. In addition, the CBO estimates the nonimmigrant foreign population, which includes temporary workers and students, has grown by about 230,000 since the end of 2020.
The CBO refers to most of the other 6.5 million as “other foreign nationals.” The bulk of that group crossed the southern border without prior authorization, turned themselves over to American border officials, and requested asylum. They were assigned court dates, sometimes years in the future. While the newcomers wait, some in government-provided shelters at first, most of them work.
There’s much that we don’t know with precision about this population. Immigration court data is incomplete because it only covers migrants suspected of breaking immigration and other laws. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee estimates at least two million have slipped through the border undetected since late 2020. The CBO’s figures are a combination of estimates and projections. Some sources estimate lower numbers of immigrant arrivals.
But information does trickle in, via a monthly Census Bureau survey of 60,000 households and the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a database of immigration-court filings curated by Syracuse University. They paint a picture of an overwhelmingly Spanish-speaking cohort that is younger, less educated, and more available to work than the native U.S. population.
The number of post-2020 immigrants who participate in the monthly Census survey is small and demographers believe unauthorized immigrants are less likely to respond when the government calls to ask questions.
But looking at the people who do respond to the monthly Census allows some inferences about their characteristics. The Journal looked at the average from May through July.
Recent migrants are younger and more likely to be of working age than U.S.-born Americans. Of foreigners who arrived since 2020, 78% are between the ages of 16 and 64, compared with 60% of those born in the U.S., according to the monthly census data.
That helps explain why they are also more likely to be in the labor force. Of recent immigrants age 16 or older, 68%—the participation rate—are either working or looking for a job, compared with 62% for U.S.-born Americans. In raw numbers, that likely amounts to more than five million people, equal to roughly 3% of the labor force.
Recent immigrants’ participation rate is likely to climb further in the coming years. It often takes more than six months for someone who has entered the U.S. to receive a work permit. Labor-force participation for foreigners who arrived from 2004 through 2019 is a lofty 73%, according to census data.
And while 5% of working-age Americans are unable to work—often because of chronic illness, disability, drug addiction, or the need to care for family members—less than 1% of post-2020 immigrants report being unable to work.
The 12 largest source countries for newcomers assigned immigration-court hearings since late 2020 are in Latin America or the Caribbean, the TRAC data show, led by Venezuela at 14%, Mexico at 13%, and Honduras at 8.5%.
Monthly census data paint a slightly different picture, suggesting that Mexico is the most common country of origin, followed by Venezuela and India.
The newcomers are settling around the country. For the 4.2 million people who have been assigned hearings in immigration court since late 2020, the top-five destination states are Florida, Texas, California, New York and New Jersey.
The states that have received the fewest of these immigrants: Alaska, Vermont, and West Virginia.
But while most recent immigrants are able to work, many aren’t ready for high-skilled jobs: The census data show immigrants who arrived since the start of 2020 are more than twice as likely to lack a high-school diploma as U.S.-born workers.
Perhaps counterintuitively, recent immigrants are also slightly more likely to hold a bachelor’s degree or higher than the U.S.-born. The data don’t make it clear why.
According to immigration court data, about 80% of recent immigrants’ spoken language is Spanish. A survey last year by KFF and the Los Angeles Times found that around half of overall U.S. immigrants say they speak English “very well” or exclusively.
Immigrants who have arrived since the start of 2020 face higher jobless rates than the broader population. Unemployment for recent immigrants averaged 8.2% between May and July, versus 4.2% for American-born workers and 3.5% for earlier immigrant cohorts. Overall unemployment has crept up this year, to 4.3% in July, in part due to the swelling numbers of immigrants looking for jobs.
Recent immigrants tend to earn less than U.S.-born workers because of their lower level of education, lack of English, and in some cases because they are working without permission. They might also compete with existing workers with less education and put downward pressure on their wages, too. Through these channels, the surge in immigration could weigh slightly on overall wages and productivity in the near term, according to the CBO.
However, the drag fades over time as migrants gain experience, and those with college degrees contribute to innovation, the CBO says. And from the day they start working, migrants pay federal taxes, helping to reduce the federal deficit.
An outsize share of post-2020 immigrants are working in low-paying jobs. The most common occupations, according to the census data: are construction laborers, maids and housecleaners, and cooks. Such jobs are more likely to be held by immigrants, especially those who arrived recently, than by American-born workers.
Many migrants do fill skilled jobs; the eighth most common occupation of all post-2020 migrants is software developer.
As political viewpoints remain divisive among social groups, 64% of hiring managers reported knowing candidates’ political views, according to a survey released Sept. 3 by ResumeBuilder.com. Of those, 68% said they would likely prioritize those with similar political views.
The top reasons cited by hiring managers for prioritizing candidates with aligned political views include:
Reflect well on the company, 67%
Better culture fit, 65%
Personal interest, 56%
The most common ways hiring managers learn a candidate’s politics include:
The candidate volunteering the information, 69%
Checking the candidate’s social media, 49%
Noticing items in a virtual interview, such as a poster or sticker, 45%
Prompting the candidate, 43%
Directly asking, 37%
Through the candidate’s clothing, 28%
Of hiring managers aware of a candidate’s political stance, 64% believe knowing this information is important.
When hiring managers were asked about why they believe it’s important to know candidates’ political views:
69% said to identify potential conflicts with existing employees
68% mentioned gauging alignment with company values
61% pointed to anticipating actions that could reflect poorly on the company
39% cited personal interest
When learning a candidate’s political views, 19% of hiring managers would be unlikely to hire those with opposing views, while 51% are very likely and 31% are somewhat likely to hire them.
Additionally, 17% of hiring managers who are voting for Trump are unlikely to hire candidates with opposing views compared to 12% of those voting for Harris.
“It’s not surprising that so many hiring managers check candidates’ political affiliations during the hiring process, especially not in today’s polarized environment,” Stacie Haller, chief career advisor at ResumeBuilder.com, said in a press release. “Our findings align with previous surveys showing that a significant number of hiring managers also scrutinize social media and other outlets for clues about a candidate’s age, religion, or other personal characteristics that may introduce bias into the process.”
The online survey includes responses from 1,000 hiring managers. It took place in August.
