The humanities are attracting fewer students. According to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, less than 12% of college students were enrolled in the liberal arts in 2015. The cost of higher education—the average student loan debt for the class of 2016 was $37,132—has likely contributed to this decline, as more students pursue degrees that will lead to clearly defined careers. Since schools often base academic positions on departmental enrollment, the decline in liberal arts majors has also resulted in a challenge for humanities programs to keep tenure-track positions viable. In some cases, departments in the liberal arts have disappeared altogether.
But this discouraging trend in higher education doesn’t reflect the reality of liberal arts graduates in the workplace. According to a report from researchers at Strada Education Network and Emsi, a labor market analytics firm, 82% of liberal arts graduates are employed. And while the median salary for liberal arts graduates is less than the median for all graduates, liberal arts graduates tend to make significant wage gains in their 30s and 40s as they learn how to articulate how their backgrounds can relate to technical fields or gain some technical skills of their own. In a second report from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, researchers report that nearly 87% of liberal arts graduates say they’re satisfied with their jobs.
“If a student has a deep interest in a major and works hard, then he or she will acquire skills that are quite useful in the workplace,” said Randall Stross, the author of the book A Practical Education. “I’m speaking not as a humanities professor who hopes this is true, but as a business school professor who has interviewed a number of recent graduates and has followed the progression of their careers,” he said during a 2018 interview.