Our recent article in The LEAD Feed delves into the complexities of the labor market for recent college graduates, using data from NC TOWER. The class of 2023 saw an unexpected decline in first-year post-college wages.
The trend is not consistent across all fields of study. Graduates with bachelor’s degrees in high-earning fields like Computer and Information Sciences faced significant declines in starting salaries. Mathematics and Statistics graduates were also notably affected. This may be due to temporary market saturation or changing employer expectations in tech and data-intensive sectors.
Conversely, majors traditionally seen as niche or less lucrative, such as Architecture and Related Services; Area, Ethnic, Cultural, Gender & Group Studies; and Natural Resources & Conservation experienced increases in starting wages. This suggests a growing demand for specialized skills.
These figures reflect only first-year earnings and may not indicate long-term earning potential. Starting salaries can be influenced by short-term labor market conditions that do not necessarily predict future wage trends. We will continue monitoring these trends to understand how the labor market evolves for recent graduates over time.
Additional data and insights are available on NC TOWER, where the dataset underlying this story can be downloaded.
