What can you do with a communications degree?
Where communications graduates actually work, and how exposed those jobs are to AI. Built from ACS 2020-2024 5-year PUMS: 76,052 people whose bachelor's degree is in this field, aged 22-64.
Communications is one of the most scattered degrees we cover. The largest single destination is elementary or middle school teaching, at about 3 in 100 people with a communications bachelor's degree. Close behind are marketing managers, also about 3 in 100, and customer service representatives, nearly 3 in 100. About 2 in 100 are market research analysts.
Smaller groups of roughly 1 to 2 in 100 work as lawyers, real estate agents, project management specialists, management analysts and public relations specialists, and about 1 in 100 are producers and directors.
A large share works outside the jobs we score. About 5 in 100 are managers in other roles, 2 in 100 are human resources workers, 2 in 100 are wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives, and another 2 in 100 are chief executives and legislators. This page covers about 52% of communications graduates, just over our 50% minimum, so read the pattern as broad rather than precise.
The numbers come from Census data on more than 76,000 people with a communications degree, matched to the occupation pages on this site. Related degrees are journalism and advertising and public relations.
How exposed are communications jobs to AI?
Communications graduates are spread so thinly that no one job can stand for the degree. About 55% of the graduates we score work in At risk jobs, including marketing managers, customer service representatives, market research analysts and public relations specialists. About 28% work in jobs rated AI-resistant despite the paperwork, such as elementary school teachers, lawyers and real estate agents, and about 17% in Safe jobs.
The largest single group is only about 3 in 100 graduates and our pages cover just 52% of the field. The Census Bureau working paper puts communications in its seventh exposure tenth, with a 2024 employment estimate close to the average major's and an earnings estimate about 4 log points below it, so the studies do not single this degree out. We rate it Insufficient evidence.
These figures cover the 52% of communications graduates who work in occupations we score. The other 48% work in roles we do not cover (largest: Other Managers; Human Resources Workers; Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing). Signal 01 averages each job's own structural exposure, weighted by how many graduates work there; it describes tasks, not whether jobs will disappear.
Where communications graduates actually work
These 10 occupations account for 26% of communications graduates. The rest are spread across many smaller occupations, each under 1%. Graduates often work outside the field.
What the research says about AI and communications graduates
The Census Bureau working paper (CES 26-56, September 2026) puts communications in the seventh of ten exposure groups, with an exposure score about 0. 4 standard deviations above the average major's. Its appendix table, based on about 64,000 communications graduates from 2018 to 2022, lists a 2024 employment estimate 0. 3 points below, and an earnings estimate 4. 4 log points below, the average major's change since 2022.
These compare majors with each other; they do not show that AI caused the gap. The paper's sharpest declines are in computer science and related computing degrees. Neither the Dallas Fed nor Employ America mentions communications in the text we read.
Communications graduates spread across marketing, sales, management and teaching, so one major-level score hides large differences between those jobs. The studies disagree about how much of any graduate weakness is due to AI, and for communications the evidence is thin.
Read the full evidence review: what the studies say about AI and graduate jobs →
Degrees whose graduates work in similar jobs
How this page was built
Graduate shares come from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS 2020-2024 5-year PUMS), field of degree "Communications" (code 1901), weighted to the population. Each occupation we cover is scored with the numbers already published on its own page on this site, then averaged by graduate share. Occupations without a page are shown but never scored. Graduates aged 22-64 are included, so the mix reflects the whole working-age group, not only recent graduates. The survey records the most recent occupation of people who were not working when surveyed (unemployed or out of the labor force), and they are counted in it: across the degrees on this site that is about 9 in 100 graduates, between 6 and 13 in 100 depending on the degree, so "work as" on this page means "work or last worked as". Sources: www2.census.gov, www2.census.gov, www.dallasfed.org, employamerica.org, www.bls.gov, www.bls.gov, www.bls.gov. This page is general information, not career or educational advice.