Business Support & Assistance

Types of Degrees Business Support & Assistance Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many business support and assistant services graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Basic Certificate	11,065
Undergraduate Certificate	4,211
Associate Degree	3,471
Bachelor’s Degree	372

What Business Support & Assistance Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, business support 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 Business Support Majors

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

• 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.
• 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.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• 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.

Skills for Business Support Majors

When studying business support, 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.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
• Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.

Abilities for Business Support Majors

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

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

What Can You Do With a Business Support & Assistance Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with business support:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Cargo and Freight Agents	10.4%	$43,210
Customer Service Representatives	4.9%	$33,750
Freight Forwarders	10.4%	$43,210
Insurance Claims Clerks	11.1%	$39,660
Insurance Policy Processing Clerks	11.1%	$39,660
Patient Representatives	4.9%	$33,750
Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks	5.5%	$47,580
Receptionists and Information Clerks	9.1%	$29,140

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Support & Assistance?

Business Support and Assistant Services runs middle of the road when it comes to popularity, ranking #23 out of all the business majors we track. In 2021, about 372 graduates completed their bachelor’s degree in this field. The major attracts more women than men. About 65% of the recent graduates in this field are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	7
Black or African American	50
Hispanic or Latino	163
White	111
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	41

How Much Do Business Support & Assistance Majors Make?

Bachelor’s Degree Starting Salary

The median early-career salary of business support and assistant services students with a bachelor’s degree is $22,486 a year according to 2019-2020 data from the U.S. Department of Education. During this timeframe, most salaries fell between $10,449 (25th percentile) and $43,303 (75th percentile).

We don’t know for sure if all of these people took jobs related to business support so take that into consideration.

Salaries According to BLS

Average salaries range from $35,200 to $43,180 (25th to 75th percentile) for careers related to business support. This range includes 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 Business Support & Assistance

Some careers associated with business support 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 business support careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	1.9%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	46.1%
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)	4.4%
Some College Courses	13.2%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	21.1%
Bachelor’s Degree	11.8%
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.	0.4%
Master’s Degree	0.6%
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.	0.3%
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%

Online Business Support & Assistance Programs

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 999 schools offered some type of business support and assistant services 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)	739	147
Certificate (2-4 Years)	8	1
Associate’s Degree	758	130
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
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 Business Support & Assistance Worth It?

The median salary for a business support grad is $41,160 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 3% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $25,200 after 20 years!

Majors Related to Business Support & Assistance

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

Major	Number of Grads
Business Administration & Management	416,590
Accounting	99,265
Finance & Financial Management	57,778
General Business/Commerce	56,042
Marketing	52,916
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	43,382
Human Resource Management	28,787
Hospitality Management	17,689
Management Information Systems	13,680
Entrepreneurial Studies	11,319
International Business	9,101
Real Estate	6,547
General Sales & Marketing	5,923
Business/Managerial Economics	5,667
Specialized Sales, Merchandising & Marketing	5,191
Other Business, Management & Marketing	4,822
Construction Management	3,846
Insurance	1,809
Taxation	1,547
Business/Corporate Communications	1,029
Telecommunications Management	55

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.