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The overall average salary for new college graduates shows a slight uptick. For the Class of 2024, the final overall average salary of $65,677 is up 2.2% over the Class of 2023’s average of $64,291, according to NACE’s Summer 2025 Salary Survey report.
This increase comes despite hiring projections made by employers for the Class of 2024 that showed a decrease of 5.8% in the Job Outlook 2024 Spring Update. The final overall average salary for the Class of 2024 follows gains of 7.1% for the Class of 2023 and 7.4% for the Class of 2022.
The top-paid categories of majors continue to appear in the same rank order since the Class of 2021. For the Class of 2024, the top-paid category—computer and information sciences—has an average starting salary of $88,907, which is 2.7% lower than the average of $91,411 for the Class of 2023. (See Figure 1.)
The overall average salary for engineering majors remains flat with an increase of less than 1%. This brings the overall average up to $80,482 from $80,085 last year.
Math and statistics majors have an overall average salary that has fallen slightly. Their overall average of $78,543 is down 1.7% from last year’s average of $79,859.
Among the five top-paid categories of majors, business majors have the largest increase. Their overall average is up 3.1%, from $66,578 to $68,644.
Rounding out the top-paid categories are graduates earning degrees in healthcare professions, whose overall average salary of $63,608 is up 2.4% from last year’s average of $62,143.
The Summer 2025 Salary Survey report provides actual starting salaries (not projections) for the college Class of 2024 and serves as the final salary report for the Class of 2024. The figures reported are for base salaries only and do not include bonuses, commissions, fringe benefits, or overtime rates. Data were gathered from Class of 2024 graduates through December 31, 2024, and reported to NACE through May 31, 2025. The salary data presented here were reported to NACE through its national Class of 2024 First-Destination Survey by approximately 363 colleges and universities nationwide and represent data for 823,500 graduates at the associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree levels. Most of the analysis provided here, however, focuses on the data provided for more than 70,000 bachelor’s degree graduates. The Summer 2025 Salary Survey report will be available in early September.
