- Gen Z graduates expect to make $101,500 out the gate—yet workers who recently finished college only took home $68,400 on average, according to a ZipRecruiter report. Here are the jobs where they can turn their pipeline dreams for a six-figure salary into reality.
Despite a shaky white collar job market and dwindling entry-level roles, upcoming graduates are optimistic about bringing home the bacon. It may be wishful thinking—unless they snag certain careers.
The class of 2025 expects to earn an average salary of $101,500 yearly, according to a new report from ZipRecruiter. That’s a lofty expectation, considering that the average starting pre-tax income for recent college graduates surveyed was $68,400 annually.
While new graduates are a bit over their heads when it comes to starting wages, it’s not impossible to earn over $100,000 right off the bat. There are two key industries that pay salaries in the six-figures: corporate planning jobs like consulting and program management and AI-proof roles like nursing and home health care.
Fresh-faced grads could even land jobs in these fields without needing an additional specialized degree.
The top 10 professions to land a six-figure starting salary, according to ZipRecruiter’s platform data.
- Consulting
- Program management
- Nursing
- Industrial maintenance
- Telecommunications
- Business development
- Data specialist
- Home health care
- Real estate sales
- Procurement
The hottest jobs for overly optimistic Gen Z: healthcare and consulting
Gen Z may be adopting radical optimism to ignore that $33,000 gap in expectations—but they should heed caution. Recent grads have less power at the bargaining table than they expect.
Nearly half of rising graduates say they plan to negotiate for a higher salary, the data shows, in order to maintain their desired living standards. Yet only 31% who finished college recently were able to pull it off, with 30% earning less than what they hoped for, and 11% earning far below what they anticipated. More than four in ten wound up lowering their lifestyle expectations because they couldn’t barter for better wages.
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But not all hope is gone. The class of 2025 aspiring for the 1% may find luck in jumping to a higher-paying industry, rather than staying put for a pay raise. About 83% of Gen Zers identify as “job-hoppers,” and 75% switch to a new role before ever getting promoted. Jobs like nursing and consulting are an “in” to a higher tax bracket.
Healthcare is having a major moment right now; as AI threatens a job takeover and a U.S. recession looms overhead, a career in the medical field can be a safe haven from the storm.
Between 2024 and 2030, U.S. businesses will undergo a major disruption because of AI, Kweilin Ellingrud, a director of the McKinsey Global Institute, told Fortune. This will induce about “about 12 million” occupational transitions. While some roles like customer service and administrative assistance may slide into redundancy, McKinsey reports, more jobs will feed into careers like healthcare, construction, and education. Jobs like nursing and home health care are essentially AI-proof.
Professions like nurse practitioners are seeing serious growth—it was ranked third in the U.S.’s 10 fastest growing occupations, with an expected 46% growth rate between 2023 and 2033, and average median pay of $126,260 in 2023. Many healthcare jobs in the healthcare field also go unnoticed; surgical equipment sterilizers are in high demand, yet few people know the role exists.
With less than a year of training and no college degree required, Gen Z has the chance to earn $70,000 a year off the bat.
