A college diploma is no longer a sure ticket to a good-paying job. Yet some workers can earn six figures in a range of occupations without a bachelor’s degree, a new study finds.
Nearly 6 million full-time workers without a bachelor’s degree earned at least $100,000 in 2023, according to a report from loan marketplace Lending Tree, which analyzed the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The study sheds light on the many alternative pathways to a high-paying career that don’t require a four-year degree.
“This report is pretty clear proof that you don’t have to go to college to earn a really substantial income, and if you are considering a different route, there is plenty of reason to believe that in an awful lot of fields you can be every bit as successful, and every bit financially stable without that college degree,” Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst at Lending Tree, told CBS MoneyWatch.
The 5.7 million, or 9%, of noncollege workers earning six-figure salaries worked in a range of fields, including software development, truck driving, elevator repair and more, according to the study. The report comes as young people question the value of a college degree, and evaluate whether the rewards are worth taking on the substantial student debt earning a degree often requires.
Over the past 10 years, young workers in the U.S. without a bachelor’s degree have seen their earnings increase, according to a study from the Pew Research Center. Amid rising tuition costs and mounting student debt obligations, 29% of U.S. adults say the cost of college is not worth it, according to the same study.
The unemployment rate for young people who recently earned a college degree was close to 6% earlier this year, above the national average of 4.2%. That’s in part, economists say, because AI is weighing on some young college grads’ future job prospects.
$100,000 and above, and no college degree
At least 40% of workers without bachelor’s degrees in 2023 earned six figures in 20 occupations, according to Lending Tree. They included software developers, sales engineers, aircraft pilots and air traffic controllers and others.
Noncollege chief executives were also on the list, with 64% earning at least six figures. To be sure, the study doesn’t suggest that young workers should expect to ascend to executive-level positions without college degrees. Rather, the high share of noncollege degree holders earning six figures as CEOs likely represents workers who have started their own businesses, according to Schulz.
“It speaks to the opportunity that can come from starting a small business today,” he said. “You’re not necessarily talking about Fortune 500 companies.”
These occupations have the highest share of workers without degrees earning six figures, according to Lending Tree’s analysis:
- CEOs and legislators
- Architectural and engineering managers
- Software developers
- Sales engineers
- Computer and information systems managers
- Power plant operators, distributors and dispatchers
- Elevator installers and repairers
- Computer network architects
- Computer hardware engineers
- Firefighting supervisors
- Information security analysts
- Petroleum, mining and geological engineers
- Locomotive engineers and operators
- Aircraft pilots and flight engineers
- Aerospace engineers
- Electrical power-line installers and repairers
- Air traffic controllers and airfield operations specialists
- Sales managers
- Nuclear medicine technologists and medical dosimetrists
College no longer required at some companies
Companies are relying less heavily on a college degree’s value too, with many loosening requirements for applicants.
“For the longest time, a college degree was a hard-and-fast requirement for roles,” Schulz said. “That’s not always the case anymore, and that opens up a lot of opportunities for people who had doors closed on them in the past.”
The report also found that San Francisco; Seattle, Washington; and San Jose, California ranked first, second and third as the places where workers without degrees were most likely to earn six figures.
By contrast, in El Paso, Texas; and Greensboro, North Carolina, just 4.9% of workers without college degrees earned six figures.
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.
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