Adult Workers’ Use of Humanities-Related Skills on the Job (Self-Reported), 2019

Adult Workers’ Use of Humanities-Related Skills on the Job (Self-Reported), 2019

The extent to which people actually use such skills offers another measure of the value of a humanities education. A survey of American adults by the Humanities Indicators found that most workers used humanities-related skills on the job. Of the seven skill areas included in the survey, workers used an average of four at least sometimes, and 81% used at least one of these skills often or very often in their jobs. More than half of employed Americans worked with people from different cultures often or very often as part of their job, and approximately the same percentage engaged in descriptive writing; however, workers were far less likely to use other humanities-related skills that frequently.24

Endnotes

• 24Humanities Indicators of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Humanities in American Life: Insights from a 2019 Survey of the Public’s Attitudes & Engagement(Cambridge, MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2020), 69–70.