Which Creative Degrees Offer the Highest Salaries and Strong Job Demand?
Which Creative Degrees Offer the Highest Salaries and Strong Job Demand?
Elizabeth GuevaraFri, May 15, 2026 at 10:04 PM UTC
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Advertising and public relations majors tend to make more than the average college graduate.
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Creative majors that lead to Bachelor of Arts degrees tend to have lower wages than those with a Bachelor of Science degree.
However, the median wage for an advertising and public relations major was $92,000, which is higher than the median income for all workers with a bachelor's degree.
Foreign-language graduates have the lowest unemployment rate among all creative majors.
Do you want to pursue a creative bachelor's degree while still aiming for a higher salary? Several creative majors out-earn the wages for the typical college graduate.
The highest-earning creative major, advertising and public relations, pays a median of about $92,000 mid-career, according to the most recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That beats the $80,236 median for workers with a bachelor's degree, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics analysis of 2024 data.
Six other creative majors also outearn the median for all workers with a bachelor's degree. Architecture and art history majors tied for the second-highest median wages, at $91,000.
Why This Matters
College is expensive, and many students take out loans to pay for it. And among those who borrow, graduates who earn the most tend to pay off their debt more quickly, cutting the interest they accrue and the total they have to repay.
These are notable showings in a labor market where Bachelor of Arts degrees tend to earn less than those with a Bachelor of Science degree. For example, chemical engineering majors lead all college graduates with a median mid-career salary of $135,000.
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An October 2025 report from Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce also found that prime-age workers in fields that typically lead to BAs—humanities and the arts ($69,000) and social sciences ($75,000)—earned median annual wages less than their STEM counterparts ($98,000).
The Most In-Demand Creative Majors
Advertising and public relations majors may earn the most, but their 2024 unemployment rate was 5.7%, higher than the average 3.9% for all workers during the same year, according to New York Fed data.
Foreign-language majors, who often go on to interpret in medical settings, teach, and translate, among other roles, had the lowest unemployment rate, at 1.6%. That is the lowest rate among the college majors the New York Fed tracks.
Journalism and general social science majors tied for the second-lowest at 2.3%.
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Source: “AOL Money”
