Who's Hiring Graduates of California's UU直播s?
A look at the top employers, industries, and jobs for the best online schools in California for salary
Written by: Michael McCarthy 
Research and Analysis by: Taylor Nichols Key Insights:
- Graduates of California's top online colleges for Salary Score often work in healthcare, social services, and education
- Kaiser Permanente is the largest healthcare employer for graduates of these online schools, with RNs topping the list of most popular occupations
- Project management and software engineering are also common job titles, with Amazon hiring the largest share of graduates in tech
- Many online students in California are active-duty service members looking to advance their careers
As the most populous state, California is full of both public and private colleges that offer online bachelor's degrees. But which schools produce graduates who command top salaries, and where do they get hired after graduation?
To find out, we looked at employment data for the top 10 online schools in California by Salary Score, a measure of alumni starting salaries by major. Our list highlights California schools with online programs whose bachelor's degree alumni are top earners in their field of study compared to colleges across the country.
We examined the top five employers, occupations, and industries for nearly 37,000 alumni of these 10 ranked schools from the 2015 through 2020 graduating classes. We used data collected by Burning Glass Technologies, an analytics company that uses its extensive database of resumes, job listings, and social media profiles to analyze the current labor market.
Methodology
For these rankings, OnlineU first determined each California school's Salary Score at the bachelor's level. To be eligible, a college needed alumni salary data for at least five online degrees in different fields of study. To determine the Salary Score for each college, we compare the starting salaries of alumni from each major to the starting salaries of alumni from the same majors across all U.S. colleges. See our guide to Salary Score for a detailed breakdown of this system.
Wage data was gathered from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard. Although we only included schools with five or more online degree offerings, data limitations mean that we can't exclusively examine the salaries of online graduates.
鈥� so it makes sense that the most populous state in the country follows the trend. Kaiser Permanente was the largest healthcare employer for these schools, accounting for 8% of graduates.
Following healthcare is education services, which employed 16% of graduates. This industry includes K-12 schools and universities, but also positions in university healthcare facilities such as Loma Linda University Health.
The next most popular industry is public administration with 11% of graduates, largely fueled by the military alumni of these California colleges. The U.S. Department of Defense is the largest overall employer of graduates from the 10 ranked colleges on this list. The Air Force hired the largest single share of graduates at 9%. Other top employers include the Navy at 7.5% and the Army at 5.5%.
These findings align with OnlineU's previous research on employment outcomes for online graduates. Service members make up a large portion of the online college student population, and many of these enrollees use their bachelor's degrees to boost their career mobility within their service branch.