CEW’s Year in Review: 2025

In Ranking 4,600 Colleges by ROI (2025), CEW updated its widely cited ROI data tool, analyzing the lifetime returns on certificates, associate’s degrees, and bachelor’s degrees. Researchers also answered the most frequently asked questions to help college goers, their parents, and school counselors better understand the overall ROI of higher education. 

This ROI data tool update provides several key insights. First, institutions that predominantly offer associate’s degrees or certificates often have a higher ROI after ten years than institutions that predominantly offer bachelor’s degrees. However, over 40 years, the ROI at institutions that predominantly offer bachelor’s degrees outpaces, in almost all cases, that of institutions that predominantly offer associate’s degrees and certificates. More specifically, public bachelor’s degree-granting institutions have a median 40-year ROI of nearly $1.8 million compared to the median 40-year ROI for public institutions that primarily grant associate’s degrees and certificates of $1.43 and $1.37 million, respectively. This is likely because associate’s and certificate programs are less expensive and take less time to complete, enabling students to enter the workforce faster. Additionally, although prospective students can often confuse a school’s name recognition with its value, the ROI data tool reveals that many regional public universities have long-term financial returns comparable to those of state flagship institutions.

Bridging the Middle-Skills Gap: Connecting a Diverse Workforce to Economic Opportunity Through Certificates and Associate’s Degrees finds that the US is facing an annual shortage of nearly 712,000 certificates and associate’s degrees aligned with high-paying middle-skills occupations¹ nationwide. These shortages, projected to persist at least through 2032, fall into four occupational groups: blue-collar (360,800), management and professional office (253,000), STEM (87,500), and protective services (10,600).

Credential shortages pose a significant risk to the US, which is in dire need of qualified workers to maintain its infrastructure, keep its communities safe, and ensure its industries remain at the forefront of innovation. At present, high-paying occupations in all four occupational groups facing credential shortages are predominantly held by men. At the same time, these shortages create meaningful opportunities for workers of all genders and racial/ethnic backgrounds to increase their attainment of credentials aligned with these high-paying middle-skills occupations. Expanding work-based learning opportunities, providing integrated academic and career support services, and addressing biases in hiring and promotion can help clear the pathway to high-paying middle-skills occupations.

Falling Behind: How Skills Shortages Threaten Future Jobs projects that the nation will need an additional 5.25 million workers with postsecondary education through 2032, 4.5 million of whom will need a bachelor’s degree or higher. Nine occupations—accountants, attorneys, construction workers, doctors, engineers, managers, nurses, teachers, and truck drivers—are projected to face acute skills shortages. The largest shortage by far will be for management positions (2.9 million), a broad category that includes CEOs, construction managers, facilities managers, financial managers, general and operations managers, and sales managers. While smaller in magnitude, shortages in teaching (611,000), nursing (362,000), and engineering (210,000) are particularly concerning, with far-reaching implications for the nation’s education, healthcare, and infrastructure systems. 

Skills shortages present an opportunity for millions of workers, particularly those from low-income households and marginalized racial/ethnic groups, to gain better access to economic opportunity. They also offer an opportunity for American industries to connect with enormous untapped talent. Due to the nation’s increasingly diverse population, addressing the skills gap will require teaching and counseling strategies that are adaptable and responsive to the evolving socioeconomic and racial/ethnic demographics of our classrooms.

The Major Payoff: Evaluating Earnings and Employment Outcomes Across Bachelor’s Degrees reveals that the choice of one’s undergraduate major is becoming more crucial for students, as recent college graduates face an increasingly challenging job market. In addition, an online data tool provides detailed information on median earnings, earnings at the 25th and 75th percentiles, the popularity of each major, and the graduate-to-bachelor’s degree earnings premiums for all 152 majors. The data tell a familiar story: Prime-age workers (ages 25–54) with a bachelor’s degree earn 70 percent more at the median ($81,000) than workers with a high school diploma alone and face much lower unemployment rates (2.9 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively). However, median earnings for prime-age workers vary significantly by major, from $58,000 in education and public service fields to $98,000 in STEM fields.

Obtaining a bachelor’s degree can also help students withstand disruptions in the labor market. Over the past 15 years, college students have increasingly majored in fields that lead to higher-paying jobs. In fact, the fastest-growing major group between 2009 and 2023 was computers, statistics, and mathematics; however, high earnings and employment don’t always go hand-in-hand. Recent graduates with bachelor’s degrees in computer science, statistics, and mathematics boast high median earnings ($79,000) despite facing the highest unemployment rate in all STEM fields (6.8 percent). 

Furthermore, as access to higher education has expanded to more students from historically underrepresented groups, representation has remained unequal in lucrative fields of study. Male, white, and Asian/Asian American workers with bachelor’s degrees continue to be overrepresented in STEM fields relative to their share of the bachelor’s degree–holding workforce overall. Meanwhile, women are overrepresented in education, healthcare, and social science fields. These imbalances have significant consequences not only for individual workers and their career prospects but also for the nation’s economic health.