Suck it, nerds: Humanities grads are now more employable than STEM grads

This is what you needed to hear


After years of being told by spotty engineers and smelly grandparents that an English degree won’t get you anywhere, there’s finally a glimmer of light.

A new study has found that humanities grads are now more in demand for employers than science grads.

Graduates from arts, humanities, and social sciences are now the most sought after by businesses in nearly all of the UK’s fastest-growing sectors.

Finance, transport, property, and communications companies are all looking for humanities grads over science grads, says the new report by the British Academy – a group who champion the arts and humanities.

In even better news, arts and humanities students experience a higher rate of wage growth, although start from a marginally worse position than STEM grads. Seven of the 10 subjects with the highest average annual wage growth were arts and humanities subjects.

In the report, big four firm PwC says around one in six of its 2020 graduate recruits are humanities students, and the gender balance of the subjects is a bonus. “Another point of note is the high percentage of females graduating in these subjects – making this a great pool of talent for businesses looking to diversify their teams,” says PwC’s Louise Farrar.

Hetan Shah, Chief Executive of the British Academy, said: “The evidence speaks for itself: arts, humanities and social science graduates are as employable as any other graduates and fare particularly well in times of economic decline.

“School students who are considering what they may wish to go on and study at university should feel reassured by this evidence that they can study subjects that they love and go on to have great career prospects.”

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