College Majors and Skills: Evidence from the Universe of Online Job Ads

Authors

Steven W. Hemelt, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Brad J. Hershbein, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment ResearchFollow
Shawn Martin, University of Michigan
Kevin M. Stange, University of Michigan

Upjohn Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2534-8164

Publication Date

12-2021

Series

National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 29605

Abstract

We document the skill content of college majors as perceived by employers and expressed in the near universe of U.S. online job ads. Social and organizational skills are general in that they are sought by employers of almost all college majors, whereas other skills are more specialized. In turn, general majors––Business and General Engineering––have skill profiles similar to all majors; Nursing and Education are specialized. These cross-major differences in skill profiles explain considerable wage variation, with little role for within-major differences in skills across areas. College majors can thus be reasonably conceptualized as portable bundles of skills.

Publisher

National Bureau of Economic Research

DOI

10.3386/w29605

Published Version

In Labour Economics 85: 102429

Issue Date

December 2021

Sponsorship

Russell Sage Foundation (grant #1811-09737), the National Science Foundation (grant #1919360) and the PR/Award R305B150012 from the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education

Subject Areas

EDUCATION; Postsecondary education; LABOR MARKET ISSUES