Job Satisfaction of Humanities Master’s Degree Recipients
- Approximately 88% of workers with a terminal master’s degree in the humanities reported they were satisfied with their jobs in 2015, with very little difference between men and women who had earned the degree (Indicator III-25a). This share of satisfied workers was somewhat greater than among business degree holders and somewhat smaller—but within four percentage points—of the share for every other field.
- When asked about their satisfaction with particular aspects of their jobs, terminal master’s degree recipients in the humanities were within five percentage points of the rate found among terminal master’s degree holders in general on every measure except salary and benefits (Indicator III-25b). The largest difference was in the rate of satisfaction with benefits. The share of humanities master’s degree recipients reporting satisfaction with this aspect of their employment was almost 10 percentage points smaller than among terminal master’s degree holders generally.
- In the case of three nontangible job benefits—location, opportunities for advancement, and contribution to society—recipients of terminal master’s degrees in the humanities were somewhat more likely to be satisfied than terminal master’s degree holders generally.
* This analysis excludes holders of the J.D. and other professional degrees.
Source: National Science Foundation, 2015 National Survey of College Graduates. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
Conducted every two years, the National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) gathers detailed education, occupation, and earnings information from a sample of individuals drawn from the larger pool of all those identified via the American Community Survey as holders of a baccalaureate degree. The National Science Foundation makes NSCG data available to researchers and the general public via downloadable data files and its online data analysis tool, SESTAT. Given the size of the NSCG sample, reliable estimates are available only for broad academic fields. For the NSCG disciplinary categories included in each of the field-of-degree categories employed by the Humanities Indicators, see the provided crosswalk. The categories for level of satisfaction in the survey were “very satisfied,” “somewhat satisfied,” “somewhat dissatisfied,” and “very dissatisfied.”
* This analysis excludes holders of the J.D. and other professional degrees. For comparison of the humanities with other individual fields, see the supporting table.
Source: National Science Foundation, 2015 National Survey of College Graduates. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
Conducted every two years, the National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) gathers detailed education, occupation, and earnings information from a sample of individuals drawn from the larger pool of all those identified via the American Community Survey as holders of a baccalaureate degree. The National Science Foundation makes NSCG data available to researchers and the general public via downloadable data files and its online data analysis tool, SESTAT. Given the size of the NSCG sample, reliable estimates are available only for broad academic fields. For the NSCG disciplinary categories included in each of the field-of-degree categories employed by the Humanities Indicators, see the provided crosswalk. The categories for level of satisfaction in the survey were “very satisfied,” “somewhat satisfied,” “somewhat dissatisfied,” and “very dissatisfied.”
