Humanities getting to work: new report from the UK surveys the market. From the article:

Studying science, technology, engineering and medicine (Stem) subjects at university has long been seen as a golden ticket to surefire career success. In 2002, the government launched an educational strategy to improve expertise in Stem. According to a 2016 report by the Royal Academy of Engineering, 50,000 additional school pupils gained A*-C grades in maths GCSEs in the following decade. More recently, education minister Gavin Williamson unveiled plans to prioritise “subjects which deliver strong graduate employment outcomes in areas of economic and societal importance, such as Stem”. Australia has just gone a step further: university students will be charged higher fees to take humanities subjects to incentivise “job-relevant” choices.

But a report by the British Academy, published this year, shows that those taking arts, humanities and social science degrees end up in jobs in eight of the 10 fastest-growing sectors of the economy more often than their Stem graduate counterparts. Overall, Stem graduates have just a single percentage point advantage in finding any job within a year of graduating than humanities graduates. “Humanities, social science and arts graduates have always been as employable as Stem graduates,” says the British Academy’s Harriet Barnes….

“Our evidence shows that graduates from social sciences and humanities change sector more frequently than Stem graduates, and when they do so, there’s no consequence on their wages,” says Barnes. “They’re able to find new jobs in economic downturns and when made redundant.” That’s because they have flexible skills that allow them to adapt to different jobs. “That’s increasingly important in an economy when you often don’t have a job for life,” she adds.

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The report from the British Academy, “Qualified for the Future,” can be found here.