Top 10 Undergraduate Degrees Most Sought by Employers — Finance Tops the List, Not Engineering
Jakarta — The entry-level labour market is reportedly facing its fiercest competition in five years. Few realise that major global companies are recruiting fresh graduates from only a select number of degree programmes.
New graduates face significant challenges in the job market. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the United States economy added just 181,000 jobs throughout 2025, far below the 1.46 million created in 2024.
A number of companies have also scaled back entry-level recruitment. This aligns with the 2025 Graduate Employability Report from Cengage Group, which describes the current conditions as the most difficult entry-level job market in the past five years.
Only 30 per cent of graduates secure employment in their field of study, whilst more than 75 per cent of companies report hiring the same number or fewer graduates compared with the previous year.
There remains a glimmer of hope for fresh graduates seeking employment. Several degree programmes are still considered relevant and highly sought after by global companies.
Notably, the most in-demand undergraduate degree does not come from the engineering discipline. The Winter 2026 Salary Survey released by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) reveals the top 10 undergraduate degrees most sought by companies for the class of 2026.
The survey collected responses from 150 member organisations between 8 October and 30 November 2025. The data indicates that companies remain aggressive in recruiting talent from strategic fields, even as overall hiring tends to stagnate.
Finance tops the rankings with the highest level of demand. Mechanical Engineering graduates also hold strong appeal among human resources departments.
Additionally, Computer Science remains a degree programme commanding high average salaries. NACE projects that starting salaries for Computer Science graduates in 2026 will rise 6.9 per cent from the previous year.
The following are the 10 undergraduate degrees most sought by employers according to the NACE report, based on the percentage of planned recruitment:
- Finance: 61.3 per cent
- Mechanical Engineering: 61.3 per cent
- Computer Science: 60 per cent
- Accounting: 58.7 per cent
- Business Administration/Management: 58.7 per cent
- Electrical Engineering: 51.3 per cent
- Information Science and Systems: 48 per cent
- Logistics: 44.7 per cent
- Marketing: 44 per cent
- Human Resources: 40 per cent