Best College Degree Salaries for 2006 Graduates

A couple months after most graduations, it’s time once again to look at how the Class of 2006 fared in what appears to be the strongest job market in the last five years (I graduated three years ago, at what was close to the end of the weakest few years of job markets) and the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has released the results of their survey. The increases are nominal increases and not real, in other words they aren’t inflation adjusted (so you can take a 4% discount off the increases). That means that in the “some decreases” list you’ll see positive numbers but it’s actually a net decrease after inflation.

Jobs with the greatest increase in starting salaries:

• Hospitality services management: +9.7% to $34,480
• Business administration/management: +6.3% to $42,048
• Accounting: +5.5% to $45,656
• Economics/Fninace: +5.1% to $45,112
• Information sciences and systems: +8.5% to $48,593
• Civil engineering: +5.4% to $46,023
• Chemical engineering: +4.7% to $56,335 (oil!)

Some decreases:

• Computer engineering: +2.3% to $53,651
• Electrical engineering: +3.2% to $53,552
• Mechanical engineering: +3% to $51,732
• History: +3.1% to $32,697
• Psychology: +1.2% to $30,218
• Communications: -0.4% to $31,876
• Political science and government: -2.6% to $32,665
• Sociology: -2.7% $30,944
• English: -4.1% to $30,906

via CNN Money.