Occupations of College Humanities Majors Who Earned an Advanced Degree
- In 2018, 85% of ADHs who majored in the humanities as undergraduates and who had worked during the previous five years were employed in the broad category of “management, professional, and related occupations” (Indicator III-03a).2 Among these occupations, education-related jobs were the most prevalent, with 28% of humanities ADHs doing such work—more than twice the percentage (11%) of humanities terminal bachelor’s degree holders (TBHs) who did so. Approximately 14% of humanities ADHs worked in precollegiate teaching and 9% in postsecondary teaching.
- Legal and management occupations were the second-most-common occupations among ADHs who had majored in the humanities, with approximately 12% working in each type of job.3
- Approximately 12% of humanities majors with advanced degrees were found in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations, fields that have been a particular focus of policymakers in recent years. Seven percent of humanities ADHs were employed in the healthcare sector, 2.6% worked in science and engineering occupations, and 2% had computer-related employment.
- The share of humanities ADHs employed in management, professional, and related fields was almost 28 percentage points larger than among humanities TBHs. The difference is reflected in the considerably lower percentages of humanities ADHs employed in office/administrative support and sales occupations.
- Humanities ADHs were more evenly distributed across the occupational sectors than were graduates from any other field examined as part of this analysis except the behavioral/social sciences (Indicator III-03b).
- With 28% of humanities ADHs working in education occupations, only education ADHs and ADHs who had majored in the arts were more likely to hold this type of job.
- ADHs who had majored in either the humanities or the behavioral or social sciences were at least twice as likely as those with any other type of undergraduate major to have jobs in the legal sector.
- Approximately a third of humanities ADHs worked in “applied humanities” occupations that allow for direct application of knowledge and skills cultivated in the field. This occupational category encompasses education-related jobs (although the data do not indicate whether the subject taught or program administered was in the humanities); museum and library personnel; writers; news analysts, reporters, and journalists; editors (text); interpreters and translators; and tour and travel guides.4
Endnotes
- 2Reported jobs are those respondents currently held or the last they worked (in the five years preceding response to the American Community Survey, the source of the data on which these indicators are based). Respondents who worked more than one job at a time were asked to report the job at which they worked the most hours.
- 3For an estimate of the share of attorneys who have undergraduate degrees in the humanities, see Indicator III-14a: Number and Share of Workers Who Majored in the Humanities, by Occupational Sector, 2018.
- 4See the supplemental table for the share of humanities ADHs working in each of these occupational areas.
III-03a: Occupational Distribution of Advanced Degree Holders with an Undergraduate Degree in the Humanities,* 2018
* Degree-holders are those employed at any time in the five years preceding their response to the American Community Survey, the source of the data on which this indicator is based. Reported jobs are those respondents currently held or the last they worked. Respondents who worked more than one job at a time were asked to report the job at which they worked the most hours. Advanced degree may be in any field.
** Includes education administrators, teaching assistants, tutors, school psychologists, and workers categorized by the U.S. Census Bureau as “other teachers and instructors.”
† Encompasses military-specific occupations and those in production, transportation, and material moving; construction, extraction, maintenance, and repair; sports; and farming, fishing, and forestry. For further details regarding the occupations included in each category used in the graph, see the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 American Community Survey Public-Use Microdata Sample. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
The information presented here on the occupations of college graduates who majored in the humanities is based on an original analysis by the Humanities Indicators (HI) of data from the American Community Survey (ACS), which has been administered on an annual basis by the U.S. Census Bureau since 2005. The ACS replaced the “long form” version of the decennial census and collects information—used to allocate billions in state and federal funding—about Americans’ personal characteristics, family composition, employment, income, and housing.
The HI has chosen to focus its analysis not merely on the currently employed but on those college graduates who were employed at any time in the previous five years, because the objective of this indicator is to shed as much light as possible on what humanities majors go on to do in the way of paid employment and how this compares to the occupational outcomes of those who majored in other fields. To consider only the currently employed would be to lose information regarding, for example, the employment experiences of the recently retired or those who have temporarily exited the paid labor force to care for children or an elderly family member or to go back to school.
The ACS permits respondents to specify up to two fields of bachelor’s degree. For the purposes of this analysis, an individual was counted as having a bachelor’s degree in the humanities if the field of either reported degree was within the scope of the humanities as specified by the HI.
Information regarding the (1) occupations included in each category in the graph and (2) specific degree programs grouped under each broad field heading is provided in the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
* Degree-holders are those employed at any time in the five years preceding their response to the American Community Survey, the source of the data on which this indicator is based. Reported jobs are those respondents currently held or the last they worked. Respondents who worked more than one job at a time were asked to report the job at which they worked the most hours. Advanced degree may be in any field.
** Includes education administrators, teaching assistants, tutors, school psychologists, and workers categorized by the U.S. Census Bureau as “other teachers and instructors.”
† Encompasses military-specific occupations and those in production, transportation, and material moving; construction, extraction, maintenance, and repair; sports; and farming, fishing, and forestry. For further details regarding the occupations included in each category used in the graph, see the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 American Community Survey Public-Use Microdata Sample. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
The information presented here on the occupations of college graduates who majored in the humanities is based on an original analysis by the Humanities Indicators (HI) of data from the American Community Survey (ACS), which has been administered on an annual basis by the U.S. Census Bureau since 2005. The ACS replaced the “long form” version of the decennial census and collects information—used to allocate billions in state and federal funding—about Americans’ personal characteristics, family composition, employment, income, and housing.
The HI has chosen to focus its analysis not merely on the currently employed but on those college graduates who were employed at any time in the previous five years, because the objective of this indicator is to shed as much light as possible on what humanities majors go on to do in the way of paid employment and how this compares to the occupational outcomes of those who majored in other fields. To consider only the currently employed would be to lose information regarding, for example, the employment experiences of the recently retired or those who have temporarily exited the paid labor force to care for children or an elderly family member or to go back to school.
The ACS permits respondents to specify up to two fields of bachelor’s degree. For the purposes of this analysis, an individual was counted as having a bachelor’s degree in the humanities if the field of either reported degree was within the scope of the humanities as specified by the HI.
Information regarding the (1) occupations included in each category in the graph and (2) specific degree programs grouped under each broad field heading is provided in the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
