Starting Salary For 2018 College Graduates: $50,390

It’s college graduation season, and the big question on people’s minds is what is the starting salary for 2018 college graduates going to be on average? Researchers at Korn Ferry looked into it, analyzing 310,000 entry-level positions across the United States to try and answer that question, and found that 2018 college graduates can expect to earn $50,390 per year out of college on average. The number, though, varies pretty dramatically by city and by career choice. Here’s what graduates in 10 major cities will be earning on average:

1. Atlanta: $49,584
2. Boston: $59,460
3. Chicago: $55,177
4. Dallas: $50,743
5. Denver: $53,010
6. Los Angeles: $56,386
7. Minneapolis: $53,766
8. New York: $60,972
9. Philadelphia: $54,169
10. San Francisco: $63,995

Per researchers careers in fields like engineering, science and software development are paying above the national average. Careers in fields like accounting, insurance and customer service, though, are paying below. And wondering how the numbers stack up with last year’s? Korn Ferry reports that they are up by about 2.8%, not a particularly meaningful jump. “With the 2018 US inflation rate hovering just over 2%, real wages for this year’s grads are virtually flat,” Maryam Morse, Korn Ferry Senior Client Partner, told CNN. The big piece of good news is that it will probably be a relatively easy year to find a job given that the unemployment rate has dipped below 4% for the first time since 2000. For new graduates who get a job and wonder how they stack up with their peers? Status Money is a great tool to use to compare your income and debt load in comparison with other people your age in your area. Image: Unsplash