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Job outlook for associate consultants in the United States
Associate consultant job growth summary. After extensive research, interviews, and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
The projected associate consultant job growth rate is 11% from 2018-2028.
About 108,400 new jobs for associate consultants are projected over the next decade.
Associate consultant salaries have increased 8% for associate consultants in the last 5 years.
There are over 359,789 associate consultants currently employed in the United States.
There are 94,983 active associate consultant job openings in the US.
The average associate consultant salary is $73,340.
Are associate consultant jobs in demand?
Associate consultant job and salary trends over time
Associate consultant jobs over time
Associate consultant job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 359,789 | 0.11% |
| 2020 | 321,564 | 0.10% |
| 2019 | 310,940 | 0.09% |
| 2018 | 332,533 | 0.10% |
| 2017 | 320,224 | 0.10% |
Average associate consultant salary over time
Associate consultant salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $73,340 | $35.26 | +2.8% |
| 2025 | $71,332 | $34.29 | +2.0% |
| 2024 | $69,952 | $33.63 | +1.4% |
| 2023 | $68,981 | $33.16 | +1.4% |
| 2022 | $68,044 | $32.71 | +0.0% |
Associate consultant jobs by state
Most common states for associate consultants
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 667 | 96% |
| 2 | Vermont | 623,657 | 172 | 28% |
| 3 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 266 | 25% |
| 4 | Delaware | 961,939 | 200 | 21% |
| 5 | South Dakota | 869,666 | 179 | 21% |
| 6 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 264 | 20% |
| 7 | Utah | 3,101,833 | 594 | 19% |
| 8 | Connecticut | 3,588,184 | 661 | 18% |
| 9 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 102 | 18% |
| 10 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 1,443 | 17% |
| 11 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 1,200 | 17% |
| 12 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 127 | 17% |
| 13 | Tennessee | 6,715,984 | 1,054 | 16% |
| 14 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 682 | 16% |
| 15 | New Mexico | 2,088,070 | 340 | 16% |
| 16 | West Virginia | 1,815,857 | 295 | 16% |
| 17 | Alaska | 739,795 | 116 | 16% |
| 18 | Alabama | 4,874,747 | 724 | 15% |
| 19 | Maine | 1,335,907 | 201 | 15% |
| 20 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 156 | 15% |
Most common cities for associate consultants
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Annapolis | 10 | 25% | $78,242 |
| 2 | Juneau | 6 | 18% | $83,775 |
| 3 | Lansing | 10 | 9% | $70,906 |
| 4 | Springfield | 6 | 5% | $74,370 |
| 5 | Topeka | 6 | 5% | $65,291 |
| 6 | Atlanta | 19 | 4% | $70,497 |
| 7 | Des Moines | 7 | 3% | $69,771 |
| 8 | Little Rock | 6 | 3% | $56,771 |
| 9 | Denver | 13 | 2% | $78,526 |
| 10 | Boston | 12 | 2% | $81,057 |
| 11 | Urban Honolulu | 7 | 2% | $60,397 |
| 12 | Baton Rouge | 5 | 2% | $67,498 |
| 13 | Chicago | 21 | 1% | $75,240 |
| 14 | Washington | 9 | 1% | $84,057 |
| 15 | Indianapolis | 7 | 1% | $65,342 |
| 16 | San Francisco | 7 | 1% | $77,426 |
| 17 | New York | 7 | 0% | $79,321 |
| 18 | Phoenix | 7 | 0% | $69,877 |
Associate Consultant job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of associate consultant experts
UMass Lowell
University of Cincinnati Clermont College
University of Southern Maine
Western Kentucky University
John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York
University of California, Santa Cruz
Coastal Carolina University
Drexel University
Davidson College
Wake Forest University
University of California, Irvine
Duke University
Florida State University
Arkansas State University
Drake University
Angelo State University
San Diego State University
Columbia International University
St. John's University
Michael Ciuchta Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Program Coordinator, Masters of Science in EntrepreneurshipUMass Lowell
Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship & Innovation
What will help Associate Consultants increase their earning potential?
Michael Ciuchta Ph.D.: If all you want is the highest potential starting salary, then you should aim for careers that offer them. But that is a shortsighted way to view things. For example, many careers that have tournament-like pay structures (think entertainment) often have very low starting salaries but the so-called winners enjoy outsized financial gains. If you are thinking about a more traditional career, I think it's important to make sure you are more valuable to your employer than they are to you. This means you have to market yourself, both to your current employer as well as to potential ones. Of course, this approach may not be for everyone and maximizing your salary potential is only one thing you should be considering when assessing job and career opportunities.
Fawen Zhang PhD
Professor of AudiologyUniversity of Cincinnati Clermont College
Communication Disorders Sciences And Services
What will help Associate Consultants increase their earning potential?
Fawen Zhang PhD: This is perfect! Thank you so much. We will be sure to feature your response in the article and send a draft over for your review before we promote it.
Tove Rasmussen
LecturerUniversity of Southern Maine
Specialized Sales, Merchandising And Marketing Operations
What Associate Consultant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Tove Rasmussen: Tove Rasmussen believes that the skills that will become more important and prevalent in the field in the next 3-5 years are...
What Associate Consultant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Timothy Rich PhD: Think about the types of jobs that interest you and the skills necessary for those jobs early. So many students start thinking about post-graduation life spring their senior year, when it should be an incremental process much earlier. Another pieces of advice would be to talk to faculty and alum about your interests, find internship or research opportunities when possible, and try to figure out early your strengths and weaknesses. It's easy for students, especially high performing ones, to not fully consider what their weaknesses are. I encourage students to jot down what they see as their skills too and to share them with others. It helps them to identify what's a common skill versus something that might make them stick out.
Professor Shonna Trinch Ph.D.
ProfessorJohn Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York
Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, And Group Studies
What general advice would you give to an Associate Consultant?
Professor Shonna Trinch Ph.D.: Being able to negotiate a salary is also a skill that students need to learn and one that is rarely taught in college. Students need to be able to ask for more than they are offered, but also take jobs at entry levels, prove themselves and then ask for an increase in pay six months into the job after they have shown that they are doing the work and achieving their goals.
What Associate Consultant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Stephanie Lain Ph.D.: I would advise graduates to be open to considering jobs in lots of different fields. The skills acquired through their major- such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and writing- are ones that transfer well to a variety of situations.
Mark Chandler
Director of Government Relations and Professor of PracticeCoastal Carolina University
Intelligence, Command Control And Information Operations
What Associate Consultant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Mark Chandler: First, focus on being good at your job. Focus on learning your specific assigned area. Get the basics down – analytic skills, communication skills. Build a strong work ethic and professional foundation. If you can find a good mentor, link up with them. Be willing to go the “extra mile” in being a team player and doing things to help others on the team, and put in the hours. In intelligence, you will not always like what policy makers do or say. It’s not our job to agree or disagree with the policy, our job is to study the situation, present the facts and then present a fact-based analytic assessment. Keep opinion, bias, and politics out of our work. This will be a challenge, but it’s one you have to recognize in order to not succumb to it.
What Associate Consultant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Mark Stehr PhD: At the start of your career, it's very important to land a role where you learn a lot and find good mentors. The additional skills will pay dividends as your career progresses.
Katie Horowitz
Associate Professor of Gender & Sexuality StudiesDavidson College
Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, And Group Studies
What general advice would you give to an Associate Consultant?
Katie Horowitz: With the rise of artificial intelligence, soft skills like interpersonal communication, conflict management, and critical thinking will become more important than ever before. These are assets that can’t be outsourced to AI, and they are fundamental to the work that Gender & Sexuality Studies majors do in college.
What Associate Consultant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Katie Horowitz: Some research shows that women and members of marginalized racial groups are less likely to negotiate their salaries than their white male counterparts. When you get a job offer, don’t forgo the opportunity to advocate for a higher salary.
What will help Associate Consultants increase their earning potential?
Katie Horowitz: Don’t limit yourself. I’ve seen Gender & Sexuality Studies students land jobs in business consulting, nonprofit, medicine, law, and more. The beauty of this interdisciplinary field is that it intersects with virtually every sphere of human existence. You can bring your GSS skills to bear on any line of work that interests you.
What Associate Consultant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Mark Evans: Don't stop learning. Treat your first job like more graduate school. Learn everything you can.
What general advice would you give to an Associate Consultant?
Dr. Neil Eldin PhD, PE: Things don’t just happen. You must develop a career plan to maximize your salary potential when starting your career. Find the right employer for yourself. For example, if you are mobile and willing to travel, target employers with international projects. After working for a few years, you can request a transfer to an overseas assignment, and this will instantaneously almost double your salary. If you are not mobile and your circumstances do not allow your travel, seek employment with major corporations and seek positions that are done at the home office (e.g., estimating, procurement, and contracting).
What Associate Consultant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Neil Eldin PhD, PE: Start on the right foot!! Start your career with the attitude that you need to give your job serious attention to build your technical skills, your people skills, and to establish a good name for yourself in the industry. Make sure you become known as a smart, hardworking person with high morals. Your technical skills will contribute half of your success. The other half you will get from learning how to sell your services. Focus on what the employers’ interests are. Explain how you can contribute to what is important to them. If you do not have what is important to them, go develop such skills.
What will help Associate Consultants increase their earning potential?
Dr. Neil Eldin PhD, PE: Technology has always been a game changer and those who are good at it position themselves in high demands. Keeping up with the new technologies related to whatever your specialty is will help you tremendously. AI looks like the future’s big thing, and I believe it is here to stay. Developing skills in this field will be highly recommended.
David Feldman Ph.D.
Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy and Political Science, Director, Water UCI, Director, MPP ProgramUniversity of California, Irvine
Urban Planning and Public Policy
What skills stand out on Associate Consultant resumes?
David Feldman Ph.D.: Succinct writing, critical thinking, strong quantitative analytical skills.
What hard/technical skills are most important for Associate Consultants?
David Feldman Ph.D.: Quantitative analytical skills.
Michael Munger
Director of Undergraduate Studies, Director, PPE ProgramDuke University
Department of Political Science
What skills stand out on Associate Consultant resumes?
Michael Munger: Political science is an ancient career synergy, one that explores the connections between ethical considerations and engineering policy that works. Someone who majors in Political Science is able to make arguments about the questions that have plagued philosophers for thousands of years while using the latest data techniques to scrape online sources of information on social media. So political science instructors have to combine ethics, knowledge of esoteric procedures and laws, and statistics!
What hard/technical skills are most important for Associate Consultants?
Michael Munger: Political Science students should take at least one Computer Science class, be able to run a spreadsheet with skill, and be able to write crisp prose that gets to the point.
C. Darren Brooks Ph.D.
Assistant Department Chair and Executive Director, Center for Human Resource ManagementFlorida State University
Department of Management and the Center for Human Resource Management
What soft skills should all Associate Consultants possess?
C. Darren Brooks Ph.D.: While advancements in technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics occupy center stage in many areas of management practice, soft skills continue to be seen as equally or even more important skills for success in the field of management. Soft skills are typically described as personal attributes, qualities, and characteristics that enable us to interact more effectively with others. In most fields of management, our ability to communicate, work with, and interact with other people constitutes a significant portion of the work we do. Consequently, employers are focused on identifying candidates who possess strong skills are areas of communication (verbal, written, and non-verbal), leadership and followership, collaboration, an ability to work in teams, intellectual curiosity, adaptability, conflict management, problem-solving, creativity.
Dr. Bert Greenwalt
Professor of Agricultural EconomicsArkansas State University
College of Agriculture
What general advice would you give to an Associate Consultant?
Dr. Bert Greenwalt: According to employers, familiarity with farm businesses and rural culture stand out on a resume. If you didn't grow up in a farm business or rural community, use internships to address this issue.
What Associate Consultant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Bert Greenwalt: Employers say that excellent selling skills and proven customer service skills with help you earn the most.
What general advice would you give to an Associate Consultant?
Alanah Mitchell Ph.D.: I recommend students work on developing a portfolio of technology knowledge, skills, and tools. Early project and internship experiences can also be very helpful in finding the first career opportunity after graduation.
What Associate Consultant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Alanah Mitchell Ph.D.: Expertise in the area of AI is of great interest right now as well as other technical areas (e.g., analytics, cybersecurity, technology consulting, the metaverse, and more). Of course, I always recommend students focus on developing their adaptability and ability to learn new technical subjects, critical thinking and analytical skills, collaboration skills and the ability to work in a team, project management and detail-oriented skills, and written and oral communication abilities.
Are there any particularly good places in the United States for Associate Consultants to find work opportunities?
Dr. Jesse Taylor Ph.D.: The three jobs in the US that come to mind are teaching math at the K-12 level, doing data analysis, and becoming an actuary. Many states currently have shortages of qualified math teachers. While the pay is not exceptional, the likelihood of getting work quickly after graduation is excellent, if you can pass the teaching licensure exam in the state you would like to teach in.
With the shift to technology and big data in today's economy, knowing how to analyze and interpret data is a skill in increasing demand. This option typically requires a bit of coding experience, but not a full degree in computer science. The final option mentioned in my list is becoming an actuary. In short, an actuary is a business professional who analyzes risk. More specifically, they explore the financial implications of risk.
For example, insurance companies rely on actuaries to determine how much to charge for insurance premiums so that they make money in the long-run, after accounting for all the claims they will need to payout. All of this is based on probability after accounting for factors like age, health, location, etc. This career requires only a bachelor's degree and requires you to pass a series of complicated industry-standard exams.It's an excellent option for good test-takers and organized and self-disciplined students.
What type of skills will young Associate Consultants need?
Stephen Brincks Ph.D.: Graduates need a combination of soft skills such as good communication and hard skills such as statistical and computing knowledge. The ongoing digitization of the economy changes the skills that accounting graduates need to succeed in today's job market. Computer algorithms and AI are increasingly automating simple tasks.
At the same time, digital technology allows companies to upload sale transactions, invoices, and other business data to the cloud in real-time. Graduates need critical thinking skills to perform higher-level activities such as analyzing data and communicating their findings to management. Employers are often looking to hire new graduates that possess advanced data analysis and computing skills to boost their organization's technological expertise.
Both soft and hard skills are essential for career success - traditional accounting skills are useless without thinking critically and communicating. Given the sheer amount of data generated by real-time transactions, there are more opportunities for employees to add value and boost firm productivity than ever before. Flexibility is also a highly desired skill, as companies need graduates who can learn new skills and adapt to future technological change.
Dr. Brian Simmons
Associate ProvostColumbia International University
School of Education and the School of Business and Professional Studies
What Associate Consultant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Brian Simmons: I would not think so much in terms of "skills to enhance" but rather experiences that will add depth of insight and understanding. Candidates with a variety of practical experiences, coupled with rigorous academic training, are set apart from others.
Joseph Trainor Ph.D.
Associate Professor and ChairpersonSt. John's University
Department of Accountancy
What type of skills will young Associate Consultants need?
Joseph Trainor Ph.D.: The type of skills expected by young graduates in accounting is moving increasingly into the technology area. The AICPA's new model for CPA licensure (CPA Evolution) recognizes the important role that technology has had, and will continue to have, on the accounting profession. To be competitive in the job market, accounting students need to have real-world technology skills, including some knowledge and practical ability in tools for things such as data-analyzation, data-visualization, and robotic process automation.
Students should focus on the underlying concepts of these technologies, rather than a particular software package. Finally, accounting students must be able to effectively use Excel, including advanced functions. Excel is one of the basic tools in an accountant's toolbox, so proficiency in using Excel is a must for any accountant.
Are there any particularly good places in the United States for Associate Consultants to find work opportunities?
Joseph Trainor Ph.D.: Accountants are needed throughout the country, but demand is particularly high in New York City and other metropolitan areas. The trend towards moving into cities may be stagnant or decline, due to the pandemic, but demand for accounting professionals in cities remains strong.
How do you envision technology impacting Associate Consultants in the next 5 years?
Joseph Trainor Ph.D.: Technology is rapidly changing the accounting profession as artificial intelligence, and automated processes change the nature of accountants' work. Because of advances in technology, accountants will be able to perform higher-level value-providing services for their clients, rather than being bogged down in repetitive tasks. Outsourcing of repetitive tasks will also decline, as automation fills that role. The type of work that accountants perform will change in the next five years, but those changes will be positive, as technology will free up accountants to do more interesting work and provide even greater value to their clients.