Join/Renew
Administered annually, NACE Research reports provide data and insight on a variety of topics relevant to the career services, university relations and recruiting, and workforce development fields.
Experts in the field of quantitative research, we can also develop custom reports based on existing NACE reports; specialized reports in school selection, peer institution comparison, and employer branding; and fully-commissioned, primary research for organizations who would like to develop, administer, and analyze a custom survey to a particular audience on their behalf.
Available Reports from NACE
Benchmarking and Compensation
Projections, Outcomes, and Trends
Questions or interested in a custom report?
Contact NACE Research at [email protected], 610.625.1025.
Career Services Benchmarks Survey
This comprehensive report details various components of college and university career services operations, including office structure, services offered, first-destination survey implementation, staffing, budgets, fees, assessments, and use of technology and Internet applications.
Fee: $285 (member); $435 (nonmember)
2025-2026 Career Services Compensation + Staffing Benchmarks
Use benchmarks from similar institutions to advocate for more resources and prepare for budget conversations. Compare salaries by role, scope of responsibility, region, Carnegie classification, and institution size using two interactive dashboards.
Fee: $300 (member); $460 (nonmember)
First-Destinations Survey
NACE’s First-Destination Survey captures first-destination outcomes for college graduates within six months of graduation. This national initiative, driven by NACE, provides standardized, aggregated data for bachelor’s and master’s degree graduates across the country.
Fee: FREE (member); FREE (nonmember)
Full report
Guide to Compensation for Interns & Co-ops
Benchmark internship and co-op compensation against current national data.
Based on actual wages and benefits reported for 2024–25, this guide provides average hourly compensation by degree level, academic major, year of study, industry, company size, and region—plus benefits data.
Use this report to make competitive, market-aligned compensation decisions and support informed conversations about internship pay expectations.
Fee: $345 (member); $510 (nonmember)
Buy now
2026 Internship & Co-op Report & Dashboard
Evaluate intern pay, conversion rates, and program structure using standardized, employer-reported data. Filter by industry, region, and company size to evaluate your program and make informed decisions—without manual benchmarking.
Use this data to prepare for your next hiring cycle:
- Benchmark offer, acceptance, and conversion rates
- Set competitive intern compensation using hourly wage + benefit benchmarks
- Evaluate which recruiting strategies are driving results
Plus, use the interactive dashboard to quickly compare your program to organizations like yours, without manual analysis.
The companion report, Guide to Compensation for Interns & Co-ops, provides supporting compensation information. (Save by purchasing the guide, report, and dashboard!)
Fee: $345 (member); $510 (nonmember)
Job Outlook (fall, spring)
The Job Outlook fall issue provides projections of market influences, including hiring projections and expectations, changes in recruiting methods, and demand by degree level. The spring issue updates the projections originally published in the fall report.
Fee: FREE (member); FREE (nonmember)
Full report
Recruiting Benchmarks Report & Dashboard
The 2025 NACE Recruiting Benchmarks Report examines crucial areas of university recruiting, including recruiting channels, screening methods, requirements, budget, and departmental structure.
This year’s report also contains new data on the impact of relationships that support early talent recruiting, including:
- The role of career services.
- The role of workforce intermediaries.
Additionally, the report confirms the value of the college degree and higher education, employers’ view of career readiness competency-based certificates, the use of AI in recruiting, and how cycle times have changed for employers and students.
Fee: $290 (members); $450 (nonmembers); FREE (member participants); $290 (nonmember participants)
Recruiting Compensation Report & Dashboard
This new recruiting benchmark report provides a comprehensive picture of the compensation package for recruiters, including base salary, tenure, change in salary from previous years, bonuses, and benefits. This report is the companion to Recruiting Benchmarks Survey.
Fee: $270 (member); $415 (nonmember)
Buy now
Salary Survey (Winter, Summer) – enhanced, digital edition
Get the essential compensation insights hiring professionals rely on. NACE’s Salary Survey delivers trusted, benchmark salary data employers use to set competitive offers, retain talent, and shape hiring strategies. The Winter issue provides the first look at starting salary projections for the current graduating class, while the Summer issue delivers actual starting salaries reported by new graduates — helping you plan with both forward-looking expectations and real-world outcomes.
Fee: FREE (member); $485 subscription (nonmember)
NACE Members can download their FREE reports at MyNACE > Salary Survey
2025 Student Survey Report & Dashboard
With insights from nearly 13,700 students across 258 institutions, the 2025 report answers your most critical questions with hard data about: job search readiness, AI & Technology, Skills & Hiring, Experiential Learning, Career Center Engagement, and Workforce Readiness.
You get the data and insights 3 ways:
- An interactive data visualization dashboard filterable by major, gender, ethnicity, and first-generation status
- A comprehensive report
- An executive summary of the key insights
Fee: $280 (member); $435 (nonmember)
Sponsored by
How do you use a dashboard?
Check out this dashboard demo from the 2022 NACE Student Survey report.
*Add our email domain (@naceweb.org) to your safe sender list to ensure you do not miss any important communications.