Americans Are Skipping College for No-Degree Jobs That Pay More Than $100,000 a Year

Jul 10, 2026 02:34 AM - 1 month ago 23079

Key Takeaways

  • New assemblage graduates are struggling successful the worst entry-level occupation marketplace successful years.
  • Here are the no-degree-required roles that salary the most, per a caller study from NetCredit.

For immoderate young group successful the U.S., higher education is losing its luster.

New assemblage graduates are presently facing the worst entry-level occupation marketplace since the pandemic, per The Guardian. 

What’s more, the mean tuition for some nationalist and backstage four-year colleges has fundamentally doubled complete the past 30 years erstwhile adjusted for inflation, NPR reported past year. 

Undergraduate enrollment was 15% little successful autumn 2021 than successful autumn 2010, pinch 42% of the dropoff taking spot amid the pandemic, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

High schoolhouse graduates who scheme to join the workforce correct distant mightiness wonderment which no-degree-required roles salary the most.

Online lender NetCredit’s caller study, which examined occupations that don’t require a grade (per the BLS Occupational Handbook) and the mean yearly net for each role, reveals the highest-paying occupation options successful the U.S. 

The apical 7 no-degree roles boast nationalist mean salaries ranging from $102,482 (gambling managers) to $122,824 (nuclear powerfulness reactor operators). 

Transportation, retention and distribution managers, pinch an mean costs of $116,022, and constabulary sergeants and captains, pinch an mean costs of $110,989, rounded retired the apical 3 best-paying occupations that don’t require a assemblage degree. 

Read connected to spot each of NetCredit’s no-degree, six-figure jobs, on pinch 18 others that connection nationalist mean wages starting astatine astir $85,000:

Image Credit: NetCredit

Key Takeaways

  • New assemblage graduates are struggling successful the worst entry-level occupation marketplace successful years.
  • Here are the no-degree-required roles that salary the most, per a caller study from NetCredit.

For immoderate young group successful the U.S., higher education is losing its luster.

New assemblage graduates are presently facing the worst entry-level occupation marketplace since the pandemic, per The Guardian. 

What’s more, the mean tuition for some nationalist and backstage four-year colleges has fundamentally doubled complete the past 30 years erstwhile adjusted for inflation, NPR reported past year. 

Undergraduate enrollment was 15% little successful autumn 2021 than successful autumn 2010, pinch 42% of the dropoff taking spot amid the pandemic, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

High schoolhouse graduates who scheme to join the workforce correct distant mightiness wonderment which no-degree-required roles salary the most.

Online lender NetCredit’s caller study, which examined occupations that don’t require a grade (per the BLS Occupational Handbook) and the mean yearly net for each role, reveals the highest-paying occupation options successful the U.S. 

The apical 7 no-degree roles boast nationalist mean salaries ranging from $102,482 (gambling managers) to $122,824 (nuclear powerfulness reactor operators). 

Transportation, retention and distribution managers, pinch an mean costs of $116,022, and constabulary sergeants and captains, pinch an mean costs of $110,989, rounded retired the apical 3 best-paying occupations that don’t require a assemblage degree. 

Read connected to spot each of NetCredit’s no-degree, six-figure jobs, on pinch 18 others that connection nationalist mean wages starting astatine astir $85,000:

Image Credit: NetCredit
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