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

Steven W. Hemelt (), Brad J. Hershbein (), Shawn Martin and Kevin Stange ()
Additional contact information
Steven W. Hemelt: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Brad J. Hershbein: Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
Shawn Martin: University of Michigan
Kevin Stange: University of Michigan

No 14964, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

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.

Keywords: college major; skill demand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I26 J23 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 72 pages
Date: 2021-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Forthcoming - published in: Labour Economics, 2023, 85, 1-17

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Related works:
Working Paper: College Majors and Skills: Evidence from the Universe of Online Job Ads (2024)
Journal Article: College majors and skills: Evidence from the universe of online job ads (2023)
Working Paper: College Majors and Skills: Evidence from the Universe of Online Job Ads (2021)
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