California saw its unemployment rate drop from 8.9% to 7.4% between August 2013 and August 2014. 313,900 jobs were created in California, bested only by Texas, which created 395,000 jobs during the same one year period.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), Summer 2014 Salary Survey was just released. It includes salary data for bachelor’s degree candidates and for master’s degree candidates.
The September/Summer NACE 2014 report shows continuing salary increases for new college graduates overall, running 7.5% higher than 2013 salaries. According to NACE, the average salary for 2014 bachelor’s degree graduates now stands at $48,707. The economic recovery continues in a positive direction across most academic disciplines.
The BS/BA starting salaries of top paying industries were:
- Mining, Quarrying and Oil and Gas Extraction ($97,100)
- Management of Companies and Enterprises ($61,490)
- Construction ($58,033)
- Manufacturing ($57,892)
- Finance and Insurance ($57,683)
The top hiring industries for BS/BA were:
- Educational Services (161,400)
- Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (131,800)
- Healthcare and Social Assistance (120,400)
- Federal, State, and Local Government (88,000)
- Finance and Insurance (47,600)
Business (BS) majors saw overall entry-level salaries increase 2.9% to $57,229. Marketing majors, the highest paid business majors, received a whopping 10.8% increase to $57,500.
Engineering salaries increased a small bit - 1.3% - with overall average BS salaries reaching $62,891 up from the 2013 average salary of $62,062. Computer engineering majors saw a decrease of 2% to $68,900.
Even with some declines, salaries for technical majors run $11,000 to almost $25,000 higher than the average new college graduate salary.
Computer sciences majors overall went up 6.1% to $62,103, up from $58,547 in 2013. Computer science majors specifically had an overall average salary increase of 5.3%, to an average salary of $67,500, up from last year’s average of $64,100.
Bachelors’ data for the 2014 over 2013 national average salaries for technical degrees found at CSUS are as follows:
- Civil engineering (BS) new grads: +3.4% to $60,000
- Construction Science/Management (BS) new grads: +7.1% to $60,400
- Electrical engineering (BS) new grads: +1.9% to $63,700
- Computer engineering (BS) new grads: -2.0% to $68,900
- Computer Science (BS) new grads: +5.3% to $67,500
- Mechanical engineering (BS) new grads: -.3% to $63,700
Masters’ degree data for the 2014 over 2013 national average salaries for technical degrees found at CSUS are as follows (some majors had insufficient data to be included):
- Computer Science (MS) new grads: +.3% to $73,600
- Electrical/Electronics (MS) new grads: +9.3% to $72,700
- Mechanical engineering (MS) new grads: +3.3% to $69,700
Salaries for CSUS graduates tend to run closer to the top of the chart below due to the fact that Sacramento is in the high cost of living area of Northern California and students frequently graduate with significant project and work experience.
Previous NACE salary reports included 90th percentile data (more relevant in CA and high cost of living areas in the country), but is no longer available through NACE. This column was replaced in 2013 with 75th percentile data.
Other excellent sources for salary information include http://www.glassdoor.com and http://www.salary.com.
Fall 2014 National Salary Data Source: National Association of Colleges and Employers Salary | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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* No offers were reported for statistical analysis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||