III-14a: Number and Share of Workers* with a Bachelor’s Degree who Majored in the Humanities, by Occupational Sector, 2018
* Currently employed workers only. Respondents who worked more than one job at a time were asked to report the job at which they worked the most hours. For further details regarding the occupations included in each category used in the graph, see the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
** Includes education administrators, teaching assistants, tutors, school psychologists, and workers categorized by the U.S. Census Bureau as “other teachers and instructors.”
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 American Community Survey Public-Use Microdata Sample. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and 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 by the U.S. Census Bureau since 2005.
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. 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.
