Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/250625 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 14964
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We document the skill content of college majors as perceived by employers and expressed in the near universe of U.S. online job ads. Social and organizational skills are general in that they are sought by employers of almost all college majors, whereas other skills are more specialized. In turn, general majors––Business and General Engineering––have skill profiles similar to all majors; Nursing and Education are specialized. These cross-major differences in skill profiles explain considerable wage variation, with little role for within-major differences in skills across areas. College majors can thus be reasonably conceptualized as portable bundles of skills.
Subjects: 
college major
skill demand
JEL: 
I26
J23
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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