Key points:
- 19.3% of jobs in the United States required a bachelor’s degree or higher in November 2025, up from 16.6% in November 2023 but still slightly below pre-pandemic levels.
- While some level of volatility in degree requirements over time can be attributed to changes in occupational mixes, a substantial proportion is being driven by increasing requirements within occupations.
- Even after holding the occupational mix constant over time, the share of jobs that require a bachelor’s degree or higher has risen modestly since early 2024.
- Degree requirements differ significantly by state; when adjusted for occupational mix differences, 22.4% of jobs in Washington, D.C. required a bachelor’s degree or higher in November 2025, compared to 10.6% of job postings in Alaska.
The push toward “skills-first” hiring across sectors promised to diminish some of the importance of college degrees as proxies for skill attainment in the labor market, but Indeed’s data on job postings suggests that post-secondary degrees still matter. While a small majority (51%) of job postings do not ask for any formal education requirements, asking candidates to have a bachelor’s degree remains embedded in hiring practices.
As of November 2025, roughly 1-in-5 (19.3%) job postings on Indeed required a bachelor’s degree or more, down slightly from pre-pandemic levels but up considerably from just a year ago.
Hiring Lab examined how degree requirements have evolved over time using both raw shares and shares reweighted to a fixed job title mix. This allows us to separate changes driven by shifting occupational composition from changes in educational requirements within occupations over time.
After holding the job title mix constant, the share of job postings requiring a bachelor’s degree has been trending upwards since March 2024, indicating genuine increases in formal higher education requirements rather than merely a shift in occupational composition in the labor market.
Line graph titled “The longer-term decline in higher-ed requirements may be fading” shows two series: The unadjusted series shows the share of job postings requiring at least a bachelor’s degree from 2019 to 2025 (12‑month moving average), while the adjusted series accounts for changes in occupational mix over time. The unadjusted series is more volatile, but both have been rising since early 2024.
The unadjusted series represents the share of all jobs on Indeed that require a bachelor’s degree or higher. It moves strongly with changes in the occupational mix of the labor market, as the prevalence of the type of jobs that typically require higher education increases or decreases in the job market. Putting it another way, if a greater share of available jobs is in STEM or medical fields that typically require a lot of education, then the total share of jobs requiring a degree will also rise. And if the share of available jobs is more skewed towards stereotypically blue-collar roles like construction or hospitality, which don’t often require an advanced degree, the overall share will fall.
For example, during the 2021-2023 period, when job postings in white-collar fields like tech and business — which are more likely to require a bachelor’s degree — boomed, the share rose right alongside it. Subsequently, when the tech sector went from boom to bust in 2023, the overall share of jobs that required a bachelor’s degree or higher dropped too. The renewed increase in the unadjusted series since 2024, despite a continued decrease in most white-collar job postings, points to a higher prevalence of degree requirements within occupations themselves.
The occupational composition‑adjusted series reweights and fixes job titles to their 2019 shares (i.e., if “registered nurse” represented 1.4% of all job titles in 2019, we assume it still represents 1.4% today), isolating changes in degree requirements from shifts in the mix of jobs over the years. The relative smoothness of the composition-adjusted line indicates that much of the change in the share of job postings that require a bachelor’s degree is related to changes in occupational mix (e.g., tech falling, leisure and hospitality rising) as opposed to changes in industry standards or policies. The composition-adjusted series has generally declined over time, indicating that there has been a decrease in bachelor’s degree requirements within the same kinds of jobs over the last 7 years.
However, after hitting a five-year low of 18.5% in March 2024 (on a 12-month moving average basis) the weighted share has been trending upwards over the past two years, reaching 18.6% in November 2025, while still remaining below pre-pandemic levels. A rise in this series means something different; it shows that today, employers are slightly more likely to require at least a bachelor’s degree even for roles that didn’t require it a couple of years ago. While this increase has not been as dramatic as the unadjusted series, it is intriguing to see in an era where skills-first hiring has been gaining steam.
Taken together, the pattern implies that volatility in the share of jobs that require a bachelor’s degree is partly attributable to changes in the occupational composition of the job market over time, but is also partly caused by shifts in education requirements within occupations.
Interestingly, recent studies have shown that even roles that don’t formally have education requirements typically hire candidates who have college degrees. Furthermore, implicit industry norms sometimes lead to employers not listing education requirements in job postings despite the role obviously requiring advanced qualifications, as is the case with physicians & surgeons and/or pharmacists, for example.
Variation by state
Looking at raw state-level shares of job postings in November 2025 that required a bachelor’s degree or higher, Washington, D.C. led the pack with 43.7%, followed by the state of Washington at 31.5%.
Washington, D.C.’s extremely high share reflects its overwhelming concentration in federal government, policy, legal, and professional services occupations, sectors where degree signaling remains entrenched. This is also reflected in the fact that Washington, D.C. residents in general are highly educated, with an estimated 65.5% of those over 18 holding a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2024.
Other states that top the list, including Virginia (26.3%), Massachusetts (25.7%), and California (25.3%), have disproportionate shares of white-collar jobs in STEM, finance, and professional services, and have a higher share of population that has at least a bachelor’s degree. There is likely to be reverse causality at work here; not only do these states have relatively high numbers of available white-collar jobs, which pushes highly educated workers to relocate there, but many companies also move their white-collar operations to these states because of the presence of workers with advanced educational degrees.
Choropleth map of the United States titled “States with more white-collar jobs have higher degree requirements” illustrates the share of job postings that require a bachelor’s degree or higher by state as of November 2025. Washington stands out with a share of 31.5%. When hovering over a state, a tooltip displays the full breakdown of education requirements: Bachelor’s degree or higher, Associate’s, Trade school or some college, Upper secondary or lower, or No requirement listed.
Mississippi (11.3%), Montana (12.0%), and Nebraska (12.5%) have the lowest shares of job postings requiring bachelor’s degrees. This is likely driven by occupational mixes favoring practical skills through on-the-job training over formal education in sectors including installation & maintenance, food preparation & service, and driving.
However, not all the discrepancies between states are driven by occupational mixes. When we apply the same occupation mix across all states – mirroring the adjustment used for the weighted series above – by reweighting each state’s job titles by the 2019 national shares, a similar pattern emerges.
Even after standardizing all states to the same occupational mix, meaningful differences in the share of jobs that require a bachelor’s degree persist — with adjusted shares ranging from 22.4% in Washington, D.C. to 10.6% in Alaska — revealing genuine regional variation in employer degree requirements for identical job titles.
Choropleth map of the United States titled “Massachusetts leads in degree requirements upon adjusting for job title-mix” illustrates the share of job postings that require a bachelor’s degree or higher by state as of November 2025, after keeping occupational-mix constant across states. Massachusetts stands out with a share of 20.3%. When hovering over a state, a tooltip displays the full breakdown of education requirements: Bachelor’s degree or higher, Associate’s, Trade school or some college, Upper secondary or lower, or No requirement.
Massachusetts and Virginia continue to top the list with a share of 20.3% and 19.4% respectively, followed by Maryland, Illinois, and New York at 19.3%.
Variation by MSA
Looking across metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) that had at least 10,000 job postings on Indeed in November 2025 also reveals a clear divide in the prevalence of jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree or higher. On the high end, Washington, D.C., Boston, New York, and Chicago all show at least 1-in-5 postings requiring a bachelor’s degree or higher (both before and after adjusting for job title mix), highlighting these MSAs as national centers of degree-focused employment.
San Jose, CA, is also particularly striking: While over half of the job postings there require at least a bachelor’s degree, its weighted share falls just under 20%. This is an indication that in the heart of Silicon Valley, there is simply a high concentration of tech jobs that require an advanced degree, rather than unusually high requirements within individual occupations.
Table titled “There is pronounced geographic polarization in degree requirements” shows the share of job postings requiring a bachelor’s degree or higher in November 2025 by metropolitan statistical area (MSA). The table includes only MSAs with at least 10,000 job postings in November 2025 and reports both unweighted shares and shares weighted to the 2019 national job-title mix. MSAs are ordered by the weighted share, with Washington–Arlington–Alexandria topping the list at 21.3%.
On the other hand, MSAs that have the lowest share of jobs that require a bachelor’s degree, after adjusting for occupational mix, include Myrtle Beach, SC (7.5%), Port St. Lucie, FL (8.5%), McAllen, TX (8.7%), Poughkeepsie, NY (8.8%), and Anchorage, AK (8.8%). In these metro areas, there are minimal differences between the two metrics, suggesting that lower degree requirements are broadly consistent across occupations, rather than being driven by a predominance of blue-collar roles.
This underscores a pronounced geographic polarization in educational requirements within the United States labor market.
Conclusion
Even in an era of skills-first hiring, bachelor’s degrees remain a powerful screening tool within job postings in several regions across the country. The share of postings requiring at least a bachelor’s degree still rises and falls alongside the prevalence of white‑collar roles. But the recent rise in the job title-adjusted series shows that employers are also increasing formal education requirements within the same kinds of jobs. Whether this is because of the changing nature of roles themselves, resulting in the need for skills attained during formal higher education, or as a shortlisting mechanism in a highly competitive job market, remains to be seen.
Stark geographic gaps persist: Job seekers in high‑cost, coastal metro areas are more likely to encounter bachelor’s degree requirements than job seekers in other parts of the country. For policymakers, the challenge is to expand non‑degree occupational pathways without closing off opportunities in regions where degrees still serve as a signalling tool.
Methodology
We tracked educational requirements by tallying US job postings on Indeed that mentioned one or more degree or training requirements in the job description as of November 30, 2025. Data is not adjusted for seasonality, but is adjusted for changes in job title-mix-by-weighting according to 2019 composition. In cases where multiple requirements were mentioned, the lowest was used.
Using the lowest requirement mentioned makes the shares smaller across most education levels. For instance, in November 2025, about 23.5% of jobs on Indeed mentioned being open to or having a preference for candidates with a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree, but were also open for candidates with lower levels of education. However, if we classify each job only by the lowest education requirement listed in the job description, about 19.3% of jobs asked for a bachelor’s degree or higher. This gap between degrees mentioned in job descriptions and true minimum education requirements has persisted over time.
The coverage on the MSA-level shares, after weighting for the 2019 job title mix, is not 100% due to discrepancies between job titles in 2019 and 2025. As a result, the weighted series only captures a section of all job postings in the month in that MSA, while the unweighted series accounts for all job postings in the month. Looking at both shares together is key for interpreting MSA‑level patterns.
