<p>A publication of the American Community Survey,
[Work-Life</a> Earnings by Field of Degree
and Occupation for People With a
Bachelors Degree: 2011](<a href=“http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/acsbr11-04.pdf]Work-Life”>http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/acsbr11-04.pdf)</p>
<p>shows estimated lifetime earnings by college major and the average earnings by college major in various occupations (numbers I have not seen before). For example, Figure 1 shows that engineering majors working in “architecture and engineering” have lifetime earnings of $3.6 mil and $4.1 mil in management, while business majors in management have lifetime earnings of $3.3 mil.</p>
<p>This publication was mentioned by a commenter on Bryan Caplan’s blog post [Three</a> Laws of Major Mismatch](<a href=“http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2013/03/three_laws_of_m.html]Three”>Three Laws of Major Mismatch - Econlib) , which discusses how earnings are affected by working in a field unrelated to one’s college major.</p>