Occupations of College Humanities Majors Who Earned an Advanced Degree
- In 2021, 87% of advanced degree holders (ADHs) 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 27% of humanities ADHs doing such work—more than twice the percentage (11%) of humanities terminal bachelor’s degree holders (TBHs) who did so. Approximately 13% of humanities ADHs worked in precollegiate teaching and 8% in postsecondary teaching.
- Legal and management occupations were the second-most-common occupations among ADHs who had majored in the humanities, with approximately 13% working in each type of job.
- Almost 14% 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. Eight percent of humanities ADHs were employed in the healthcare sector, 3% worked in science and engineering occupations, and 2.6% had computer-related employment.
- The share of humanities ADHs employed in management, professional, and related fields was almost 26 percentage points larger than among humanities TBHs. The difference is found in the considerably smaller 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 27% of humanities ADHs working in education occupations, only ADHs who had majored in education or 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 (both were near 13% compared to an average of 5% among all ADHs).
- Almost 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.3
Endnotes
- 2Currently employed workers. Respondents who worked more than one job at a time were asked to report the job at which they worked the most hours.
- 3See 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,* 2021
* Currently employed workers. 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, 2021 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 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 occupations included in each category in the graph and specific degree programs grouped under each broad field heading is provided in the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
* Currently employed workers. 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, 2021 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 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 occupations included in each category in the graph and specific degree programs grouped under each broad field heading is provided in the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
