Unemployment among Humanities Bachelor’s Degree Holders, by Age and Highest Degree, 2013–2018

Unemployment among Humanities Bachelor’s Degree Holders, by Age and Highest Degree, 2013–2018

Relative unemployment rates can also play an important part in perceptions of the postcollegiate outcomes of humanities graduates. Like graduates from every other field, holders of bachelor’s degrees in the humanities experienced a sharp drop in unemployment from the Great Recession to the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2013 to 2018, the rate fell to near 3% for those with just a bachelor’s degree, and to below 2% among older advanced degree holders. (In 2018, the unemployment rate among workers who completed high school but did not attend college was 7.3% for those ages 24–34, and 4.4% for those ages 35–54.) 16

Endnotes

• 162018 American Community Survey PUMS.