Nearly 85% of Class of 2023 bachelor’s degree graduates and nearly 90% of master’s degree graduates were employed or engaged in further education within six months of graduation, according to NACE’s First Destinations for the College Class of 2023 report.

While Class of 2023 bachelor’s and master’s degree graduates didn’t fare quite as well as their Class of 2022 counterparts, the job market at the time is an important factor to consider. NACE’s Job Outlook 2022 Spring Update reported that employers expected to hire 31.6% more new college graduates from the Class of 2022 than they had the previous year, representing a historic high coming out of the pandemic.

So, while the outcome rates for Class of 2023 bachelor’s and master’s degree graduates are down 1.2% and 0.9%, respectively, they are slight decreases following record levels of hiring and both exceeded the outcomes rates seen during the pandemic. (See Figure 1.)

At the bachelor’s degree level, 57.2% of graduates were employed full time within six months of graduation; that’s down from what Class of 2022 graduates (59.1%) experienced, but better than what 2021 (55.3%) and 2020 graduates (53.6%) saw.

Furthermore, a slightly higher percentage of Class of 2023 bachelor’s graduates (20.2%) continued their education compared to their counterparts from the Class of 2022 (19.4%).

On the other hand, both associate and doctoral degree graduates from the Class of 2023 posted outcome rates above 90% and outpaced the rates of Class of 2022 graduates at the same degree levels.

NACE’s First Destinations for the College Class of 2023 report examines the initial landing spot for Class of 2023 graduates. It provides baseline benchmarks, assessing where graduates at all degree levels—associate through doctoral—fared six months post-graduation. The academic year for the Class of 2023 ran July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023, and participating colleges and universities collected data for these graduates through December 2023. In total, the graduating classes of these reporting institutions represent approximately 773,000 graduates—553,000 at the bachelor’s degree level; 176,000 at the master’s level; 31,500 earning a doctoral degree; and 12,500 at the associate degree level. NACE’s First Destinations for the College Class of 2023 report is available on NACEWeb.