State of the Humanities 2021: Workforce & Beyond

Share of College Graduates Who Consider Aspects of Work “Very Important,” by Field of Bachelor’s Degree, 2019

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Humanities Indicators

Share of College Graduates Who Consider Aspects of Work “Very Important,” by Field of Bachelor’s Degree, 2019

An examination of what college graduates are looking for in a job provides helpful context for a discussion of their employment outcomes. For instance, the data reveal that humanities graduates are similar to college graduates generally in whether they consider key aspects of work important.

Humanities majors, however, were less likely than business or health/medical sciences graduates to consider salary “very important.” And humanities graduates were less likely than their counterparts in education or health/medical sciences to consider making a contribution to society very important, but they were substantially more likely than business majors to value it. (Information for other fields can be downloaded here.)4

Endnotes

  • 4Original analysis by the Humanities Indicators of data from the National Science Foundation, National Survey of College Graduates, 2019.