Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The findings highlight alternative pathways to six-figure salaries as young workers increasingly weigh the cost and financial return of a four-year college education.
High-Paying Jobs Without a College Degree
The LendingTree report found that 5.7 million workers—representing 9% of full-time employees without a bachelor’s degree—secured six-figure incomes across a wide range of industries in 2023. These occupations include software development, truck driving, elevator repair, and executive management, according to the data.
Schulz added that workers in many fields can achieve financial stability without a university diploma.
Occupations featuring the highest concentration of non-degree workers earning at least $100,000 include architectural and engineering managers, software developers, sales engineers, computer and information systems managers, and power plant operators. Elevator installers and repairers, computer network architects, aircraft pilots, and air traffic controllers also appear near the top of the list.
Chief executives without a bachelor’s degree also featured prominently in the study, with 64% of non-degree holders in that category earning at least six figures. Schulz noted that this figure likely reflects individuals who launched their own small businesses rather than executives running Fortune 500 corporations, underscoring the income potential of entrepreneurship.
Shifting Economics of Higher Education
The lending marketplace analysis arrives as younger workers question the value of traditional degree paths amid rising tuition costs and mounting student loan debt. Data from a 2024 Pew Research Center study shows that 29% of U.S. adults believe the cost of college is not worth it.
At the same time, recent college graduates face an increasingly competitive job market. The unemployment rate for young people with a fresh college degree hovered near 6% earlier this year, outpacing the overall national unemployment rate of 4.2%. Economists attribute part of that trend to companies deploying artificial intelligence tools to handle entry-level tasks previously assigned to recent graduates.
Conversely, earnings for young workers without a bachelor’s degree have risen over the past decade, according to the Pew Research Center.
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