General Business

Types of Degrees General Business Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many general business/commerce graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Bachelor’s Degree	25,331
Associate Degree	17,216
Master’s Degree	9,096
Basic Certificate	3,487
Undergraduate Certificate	1,474
Graduate Certificate	368
Doctor’s Degree	232

What General Business Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, general business majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for General Business Majors

General Business majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
• Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.

Skills for General Business Majors

When studying general business, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.

Abilities for General Business Majors

Some of the most crucial abilities to master while a general business student include the following:

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.

What Can You Do With a General Business Major?

People with a general business degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Administrative Services Managers	10.1%	$96,180
Business Professors	18.0%	$83,960
Compliance Managers	8.0%	$107,480
Construction Managers	11.1%	$93,370
Cost Estimators	10.5%	$64,040
Investment Fund Managers	8.0%	$107,480
Loss Prevention Managers	8.0%	$107,480
Management Analysts	14.3%	$83,610
Regulatory Affairs Managers	8.0%	$107,480
Sales Managers	7.5%	$124,220
Security Managers	8.0%	$107,480
Social and Community Service Managers	18.0%	$65,320
Storage and Distribution Managers	6.8%	$94,730
Supply Chain Managers	8.0%	$107,480
Transportation Managers	6.8%	$94,730
Wind Energy Operations Managers	8.0%	$107,480
Wind Energy Project Managers	8.0%	$107,480

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in General Business?

General Business/Commerce runs middle of the road when it comes to popularity, ranking #21 out of all the undergraduate majors we track. In 2021, about 24,850 graduates completed their bachelor’s degree in this field. Roughly 47% of the graduates are women, and 53% are men.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of general business majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	1,599
Black or African American	3,460
Hispanic or Latino	3,053
White	14,047
International Students	1,323
Other Races/Ethnicities	1,849

Geographic Diversity

General Business appeals to people across the globe. About 5.2% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to General Business

Some careers associated with general business require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to general business have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	0.2%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	9.1%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	4.1%
Some College Courses	7.2%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	8.6%
Bachelor’s Degree	45.4%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	4.0%
Master’s Degree	14.1%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	2.3%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	0.3%
Doctoral Degree	5.1%

Online General Business Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	102	37
Certificate (2-4 Years)	2	0
Associate’s Degree	498	166
Bachelor’s Degree	49	13
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	131	34
Post-Master’s	9	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	23	1
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	2	1
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to General Business

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to general business.

Major	Number of Grads
Business Administration & Management	395,227
Accounting	84,760
Finance & Financial Management	58,013
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	56,747
Marketing	52,820
Human Resource Management	25,350
Business Support & Assistant Services	16,604
Hospitality Management	14,076
Entrepreneurial Studies	12,707
Management Information Systems	11,695
Real Estate	7,783
International Business	7,505
General Sales & Marketing	5,965
Other Business, Management & Marketing	4,903
Business/Managerial Economics	4,885
Specialized Sales, Merchandising & Marketing	4,322
Construction Management	4,158
Insurance	2,334
Taxation	1,257
Business/Corporate Communications	837
Telecommunications Management	58

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By U.S. Consulate General Munich under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.