Office Administration

Types of Degrees Office Administration Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many office administration graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Basic Certificate	1,902
Associate Degree	1,239
Bachelor’s Degree	479
Undergraduate Certificate	364
Master’s Degree	84
Graduate Certificate	8

What Office Administration Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, office management 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 Office Management Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in office management should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• 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.
• 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.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.

Skills for Office Management Majors

When studying office management, 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:

• 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.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others’ actions.

Abilities for Office Management Majors

Office Management majors often go into careers where the following abilities are vital:

• 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.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

What Can You Do With a Office Administration Major?

People with a office management degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers	3.4%	$55,810

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Office Administration?

The major attracts more women than men. About 67% of the recent graduates in this field are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of office management majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	21
Black or African American	59
Hispanic or Latino	216
White	145
International Students	15
Other Races/Ethnicities	23

Geographic Diversity

Students from other countries are interested in Office Management, too. About 3.1% of those with this major are international students.

How Much Do Office Administration Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Office Management majors often go into careers with median salaries of $59,340. This median refers to all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Office Administration

Some careers associated with office management 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.

Find out what the typical degree level is for office management careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	23.3%
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)	0.6%
Some College Courses	20.1%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	9.7%
Bachelor’s Degree	45.5%
Master’s Degree	1.3%

Online Office Administration Programs

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 298 schools offered some type of office administration program. 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)	90	25
Certificate (2-4 Years)	1	0
Associate’s Degree	213	46
Bachelor’s Degree	2	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	3	1
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Office Administration Worth It?

The median salary for a office management grad is $59,340 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 49% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $388,800 after 20 years!

Majors Related to Office Administration

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to office management.

Major	Number of Grads
General Business Administration and Management	353,401
Organizational Leadership	15,171
Interior Design Management	14,326
Supply Chain Management	10,986
Operations Management	7,153
Project Management	4,237
Non-Profit/Public/Organizational Management	2,905
Purchasing, Procurement/Acquisitions and Contracts Management	1,058
Retail Management	1,008
Transportation/Mobility Management	754
Science/Technology Management	430
Risk Management	396
E-Commerce	293
Research and Development Management	238
Customer Service Management	158

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

More about our data sources and methodologies.