Career Prospects for Psychology Majors

Perhaps someone you know has told you, “Don’t go into psychology because there are no jobs,” or you may have heard or read that graduates with psychology bachelors’ degrees don’t make much money. While it is true that it is a long and difficult (and often expensive) path to becoming a “Psychologist,” there are other career options for psych majors. This is good news because psychology is one of the most popular undergraduate majors.

A recent study conducted by analytics company Burning Glass Technologies surveyed over 138,000 recent undergraduate psychology majors and over 21,000 psychology majors graduating with Masters degrees. They surveyed alumni graduating from 2010 through 2020 and contacted them 3-5 years post-graduation.

The list of jobs and companies that psychology graduates work at is vast, but let me give you some of the highlights:

For graduates with a bachelor’s degree in psychology: The top sectors for employment were Healthcare (17.1%), Sales (12.6%), Education (9.2%), Social Services (8.5%), and Human Resources (7.5%). This accounts for well over half of all bachelor’s-level graduates.

For Masters degree graduates: The top sector was Healthcare (31.7%), followed by Social Services (11.9%), Education (11.4%), and Human Resources (9.5%).

What sorts of companies are the biggest employers of psychology graduates?

For Bachelor’s degree alumni, there is a wide range of companies from Amazon to Target to the US Army. Those who graduated with a Masters degree are eligible for jobs as therapists or as research assistants (accounting for a lot of employment in healthcare), but they are also employed in the military, in educational institutions (especially school districts), federal and state government, and consulting firms. (Read more about this study at OnlineU.)

Importantly, as someone who has been teaching psychology students at all levels – bachelor’s degree through Ph.D. — many graduates with an undergraduate degree will work for a while and go back to school for a Masters or Ph.D./Psy.D. because those advanced degrees lead to better, more high-paying careers. Psychology graduates also can pursue higher degrees in Business (MBA) and other areas as well.

The bottom line is that there are indeed jobs for psychology graduates, and they are varied. But there is more to studying psychology than finding a lucrative career. Here is a post on the ways that studying psychology can change your life.

The American Psychological Association (APA) maintains an entire area of its website specifically for exploring career opportunities with a psychology degree—at the doctoral, Master's, and even the bachelor’s degree level.