Arts & Humanities Careers: Job Market Reality + How to Improve Your Prospects

A master’s degree, 150 applications – and still no job. That’s the story from a 23-year-old with a fresh master’s degree in Belgium that was published earlier this week. The article suggests that even highly educated young people, especially from Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and Journalism (AHSSJ), are stuck in long job searches or pushed into work below their level.

If we stick to the Belgian job market for instance, data indeed seems to indicate some kind of correlation. In the third quarter of 2024, almost one in five young Belgians aged 15–24 who were active on the job market were unemployed (19.9%). And among those who do find work, many are overqualified: more than 20% of young people (15–34) with a first work experience have a higher education level than their job requires, and for more than 20% the job does not match their field of education.

Two trends emerge clearly from this data: youth unemployment and graduate underemployment.

Unemployment vs underemployment – what’s the difference? Unemployment means you are actively looking for a job on the job market but cannot find one. Underemployment means you have a job, but it does not match your level of education, skills, or career goals. This explains why some study fields show low unemployment yet high frustration and income gaps. This shows that graduates are working, but not in roles that reflect their training or long-term potential.

The question is whether students who choose arts, humanities, social sciences or journalism really face worse odds than peers in engineering, IT or health – and if so, by how much. And I also looked whether the job market situation is any different EU-wide and US-wide using available data.

What the global data actually say about fields of study

Across OECD countries, tertiary education still pays off. Adults with a degree work more and earn more than those without one. But the advantage is unevenly distributed across fields.

The latest Education at a Glance data show a clear hierarchy in employment rates among tertiary-educated adults (25–64) by field of study.

OECD average employment rate of tertiary-educated adults (25–64) by field of study

Field of study (tertiary, 25–64)	Average employment rate (%)
Information & Communication Technologies (ICT)	90
Engineering, manufacturing & construction	89
Arts & humanities; social sciences; journalism & information (AHSSJ)	84

The gap between AHSSJ and the top technical fields is roughly 5–6 percentage points. That does not mean arts or social science graduates are unemployed en masse. Most of them are working. But as a group they are more exposed to unemployment and inactivity than engineers or IT graduates.

Eurostat’s picture for the EU supports this. In 2023, 83.5% of recent graduates (20–34, finished education in the last 1–3 years) were employed, and those with tertiary degrees had an employment rate of 87.7%. Eurostat publishes overall employment rates for recent graduates, and the European Commission includes field-of-education breakdowns in the Education and Training Monitor Toolbox. OECD’s field-specific analysis, which includes EU countries, consistently places AHSSJ at the bottom of the employment ranking among major fields.

So the core pattern is there alright:

• Tertiary education strongly improves employment chances on the job market.
• Within tertiary education, AHSSJ fields have the lowest employment rate on the job market.

The Belgian case I refer to in my introduction is one example of a structural pattern that repeats across advanced economies.

Underemployment rate with humanities graduates in the US and EU is the hidden problem behind “I have a degree but no job”

While unemployment only shows part of the picture, a much larger group is technically “employed” but in jobs that do not require their degree or do not match their field. In other words, it’s underemployment which is the real element we need to focus on in the job market.

The EU has flagged this as a growing issue. A Cedefop brief on higher-education graduates estimated that more than one in five tertiary graduates in the EU work in jobs below their qualification level. They have a degree, but the job market does not fully use it.

Back to the case in Belgium, Belgium’s Statbel finds a similar mismatch among young people on the job market:

• Over 20% of young workers (15–34) with a first job are overqualified for their role.
• For more than 20%, the job is outside their field of study.

This matters for AHSSJ graduates because many of them do end up working, but often outside their field and below their skill level. That can translate into lower wages, weaker career progression and a higher risk of dropping out of the profession they originally trained for.

The US: degrees are not equal, and some majors are clearly riskier

The US publishes some of the most detailed data on job market outcomes by major. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s “Labor Market for Recent College Graduates” tracks unemployment, underemployment and wages by bachelor major, and its figures are widely used by analysts.

Underemployment by major

A 2025 analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, based on NY Fed data, shows that some majors are hit very hard by underemployment in the job market – resulting in graduates working in jobs that even do not require a degree at all.

Majors with the highest underemployment rates in the US

Major	Underemployment rate (%)
Criminal justice	67.2
Performing arts	62.3
Medical technicians	57.9
Liberal arts	56.5
Anthropology	55.9

For context: the average underemployment rate among recent US college graduates is about 40.5%. That means AHSSJ-type majors such as liberal arts, performing arts and anthropology sit far above the already high baseline.

That makes that for the US job market:

• Roughly 4 in 10 recent college graduates are underemployed.
• For some AHSSJ-type majors, it is 5 or even 6 in 10.

Unemployment by major

Unemployment gaps exist as well. A 2025 labor-market overview based on NY Fed data shows:

• Anthropology graduates had an unemployment rate of 9.4%.
• Physics graduates, 7.8%.
• Computer engineering graduates, 7.5%.

By comparison, US data from NCES put the average unemployment rate for young adults (25–34) with bachelor’s degrees around 4%, versus 10% for high-school graduates.

These numbers show two things at once:

1. A degree still halves your unemployment risk compared with stopping after high school.
2. Not all degrees behave the same. Majors in anthropology, liberal arts and performing arts cluster at the bottom on underemployment in the job market and, in some cases, unemployment; technical fields cluster higher, even if some STEM majors also currently struggle.

Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and Journalism have a real issue on the job market

Across the EU and the US, graduates in AHSSJ fields face a consistent pattern on the job market:

• Slightly lower employment rates than graduates in ICT, engineering or health.
• Higher underemployment, especially in the US, where liberal arts, performing arts and anthropology show underemployment rates above 55%.
• Slower and more fragile transitions into “graduate level” roles, as older EU reports on graduate employability already noted.

There are several structural reasons for this.

Fewer “degree-locked” jobs

ICT, engineering, medicine and some business disciplines funnel graduates into occupations that are:

• legally protected (medicine, law to some extent)
• highly technical with clear entry barriers (software engineering, civil engineering)
• integrated into regulated professional tracks

Arts, humanities and many social sciences feed into much less regulated segments of the job market. This includes dor instance cultural industries, NGOs, media, public administration, education, and communication roles. Job ads often prefer a degree but rarely insist on a specific discipline. That gives employers more room to hire sideways from other fields.

The result however is that AHSSJ graduates compete not only with each other, but with business, law, STEM and non-graduates with relevant experience.

Labur markets built on internships and informal entry routes

Fields like journalism, culture, communications and international relations rely heavily on:

• unpaid or low-paid internships
• freelance or project work
• informal hiring channels and networking

Those mechanisms favour students who can afford months of poorly paid work in expensive cities or who already have strong social capital. For other graduates, especially first-generation students or those outside major cities, the barrier to entry is much higher. This feeds into prolonged job searches and higher risk of giving up and taking non-graduate work.

Regional and sectoral exposure

EU and national labor market monitoring show that youth unemployment is highest in cities and in sectors like hospitality and retail, which often absorb graduates while they search for a “real” job. In 2023, EU youth unemployment (15–24) stood at 14.5%, more than double the overall unemployment rate of 6.1%.

AHSSJ graduates are more likely to be concentrated in urban areas and in sectors vulnerable to cyclical downturns and public-budget cuts (culture, media, NGOs, education), which amplifies the risk.

AI and the erosion of entry-level white-collar jobs

Recent coverage of youth unemployment in the UK and US highlights a new factor: automation and AI are eating away at entry-level white-collar tasks, from basic research and reporting to routine communications work.

Many AHSSJ graduates target exactly those roles: junior researcher, assistant journalist, social media officer, policy aide. When part of that work is automated or consolidated into fewer roles, the number of “foot-in-the-door” jobs shrinks drastically.

Europe vs the US: same direction, but with a different intensity

The EU and US labor markets are not identical, but they do show the same direction.

• In the EU/OECD, AHSSJ graduates have lower employment rates than ICT and engineering graduates, but the difference is relatively modest (around 5–6 percentage points).
• In the US, the underemployment gap is sharper. Liberal arts, performing arts and anthropology show underemployment above 55%, compared with about 40.5% on average for all majors.

Why is there a difference you may ask? The difference finds its roots in the following key elements that differ the EU job market from the US job market:

• Social safety nets and public employment (education, culture, administration) are stronger in many EU countries than in the US. That really softens the landing for AHSSJ graduates.
• The US higher-education system is more market-driven, with higher tuition fees and a large private sector. Graduates are forced to accept non-graduate jobs faster to service debt, which inflates underemployment figures.
• In continental Europe, collective bargaining and job market regulation limit the most extreme forms of low-paid graduate work, but they do not eliminate mismatch or precarious contracts.

Another important layer is how many students choose these fields. EU data show that arts and humanities typically account for between 8% and 16% of tertiary graduates depending on the country, with social sciences and business together forming the largest block. In other words, this affects a substantial share of every cohort in the EU.

In the US the situation is very similar to (and even sharper than) the EU. Just like in the EU:

• Business + social sciences + psychology together ≈ 32% of all US bachelor’s degrees.
• The social sciences / business block is the single largest cluster of majors, even before you add related fields like public policy or communications.

You can see a small difference though. In the United States, humanities degrees have fallen to about 9% of all bachelor’s degrees, while business, social sciences and psychology together account for roughly a third of every graduating cohort.

Are arts and social science degrees “bad investments”?

Unlike what you would think, the data do not support the idea that AHSSJ graduates are doomed, but they do show that they carry more risk.

Three points stand out:

1. They still outperform non-graduates: Across OECD countries, tertiary-educated adults, including AHSSJ graduates, have much higher employment rates than people with only secondary education.
2. Field matters for earnings and stability: Georgetown University’s “Major Payoff” report and OECD earnings tables show that lifetime earnings for arts and humanities are usually lower than for engineering, ICT and many business fields, even when employment rates are similar.
3. Risk concentrates at the start of the career: The biggest differences in unemployment and underemployment happen in the early years after graduation. Those who manage to secure a good first job tend to converge towards the average over time; those who do not often leave their field entirely.

So the key issue is less “Is an arts or social science degree useless?” and more “How exposed are graduates to unemployment and underemployment in the first five years?”

For the Belgian student from my introduction, that exposure is very high. For the average AHSSJ graduate in the EU or US, the data point in the same direction – though not with identical intensity.

What universities and policymakers are doing and where the gap remains

European and national policy documents have been warning about graduate mismatch for over a decade. The Cedefop already noted in 2013 that while around 80% of recent EU higher-education graduates were employed, more than one in five were over-qualified for their jobs.

Since then, universities and governments have tried to:

• embed internships and project work into AHSSJ curricula
• expand career services and alumni networks
• promote transversal skills like digital literacy and entrepreneurship
• link humanities and social sciences to applied areas such as policy analysis, UX, data journalism or cultural industries management

Yet the latest youth unemployment and underemployment figures show that this is not enough, especially in a labor market soon bulldozered by AI.

How many arts and social science students are underemployed or unemployed in the EU and the US after graduating?

The situation is urgent if you look at the total numbers, which gives a different impact compared to percentages. For this article I made some rough translations of rates towards counts, just to give you scale of the issue. In short, read these as rough approximative counts, and not as exact official totals.

Region	Annual tertiary/postsecondary graduates	Approx. number not in employment	Approx. number underemployed / over-qualified
EU-27	4.1 million	4,100,000 × 12.4% ≈ 508,000 graduates not in work (unemployed or inactive)	4,100,000 × 23% ≈ 943,000 graduates working below their qualification level
USA	5.1 million	5,100,000 × 4.5% ≈ 230,000 recent graduates unemployed	5,100,000 × 40.5% ≈ 2,065,000 recent graduates underemployed

How did I come to these counts?

In 2022, EU universities produced about 4.1 million tertiary graduates. Eurostat data show that in 2023, around one in eight recent tertiary graduates were not in employment, and around one in four young tertiary graduates were working in jobs below their qualification level.

In the United States, colleges and universities conferred roughly 5.1 million postsecondary awards in 2021–22. New York Fed and Statista data indicate that in mid-2024 about 4.5% of recent graduates were unemployed, while around 40% were underemployed, meaning they were working in roles that typically do not require a degree or did not offer enough hours.

If we break this down by field (arts/humanities vs STEM vs business) then the numbers look like this, again, these are approximative counts based on data from Eurostat (Graduates by level and field / Tertiary education statistics / Tertiary attainment) , OECD, Cedefop, NCES (Bachelor’s degrees by field of study / Fast Facts / Undergraduate Degree Fields), Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

In the EU

Across the EU, tertiary education produces a very large yearly cohort, and the three big families of degrees already show where labor market risk concentrates. In a recent pre-pandemic year, EU-27 countries awarded around 4.8 million tertiary degrees, of which arts and humanities accounted for about 11%, STEM fields for roughly 26%, and business, administration and law for about 24%. That means well over half of all graduates fall into one of these three broad directions, so any imbalance in their employment outcomes touches a huge share of each cohort.

Employment and over-qualification patterns make the contrast clear. Using OECD field-of-study employment rates as a proxy for the EU, arts and humanities sit near 83% employed, compared with roughly 89% for STEM and just under 88% for business-type degrees. Applied to the EU graduating pipeline, that translates into around 89,000 arts and humanities graduates not in work, versus about 137,000 STEM graduates and 138,000 business graduates, and an even larger group working below their qualification level on the job market , where arts and humanities again carry the heaviest exposure.

Field (EU, illustrative)	Approx. grads / year	Share of grads	Approx. unemployed	Approx. underemployed
Arts & humanities	528,000	11%	≈ 89,000	≈ 158,000
STEM (science + ICT + engineering)	1,248,000	26%	≈ 137,000	≈ 225,000
Business, admin & law	1,152,000	24%	≈ 138,000	≈ 230,000

In the United States

In the United States, bachelor’s degrees show a similar three-way split, but the underemployment story is even sharper. In 2021–22, US institutions awarded about 2.08 million bachelor’s degrees, with humanities at roughly 12.5%, STEM fields at about 21.6%, and business at 18.6% of the total. Humanities and business together already cover more than 30% of all bachelor’s graduates, while STEM forms a slightly smaller but still very large block.

When you overlay New York Fed labor market outcomes by major, the risk profile by field becomes obvious. Liberal-arts-type degrees carry unemployment rates around 5.3% and underemployment rates on the job market near 56.5%, while general business degrees show similar unemployment but underemployment in the job market around 52.4%. STEM degrees (engineering, natural sciences, computer science) cluster near 3% unemployment and roughly 22% underemployment in the job market. Applied to one graduating year, that leaves humanities and business with far more graduates in non-graduate jobs than STEM, even though absolute unemployment headcounts are comparable.

Field (US, illustrative)	Approx. grads / year	Share of grads	Approx. unemployed	Approx. underemployed
Arts & humanities	≈ 260,000	12.5%	≈ 13,800	≈ 146,900
STEM (science + CS + engineering)	≈ 449,300	21.6%	≈ 13,500	≈ 98,800
Business	≈ 386,900	18.6%	≈ 20,500	≈ 202,700

There is a bigger system problem than just “choosing the wrong degree”

The numbers from Europe and the United States point all in the same direction. Tertiary education still pays off on the job market, but its benefits are clearly unevenly distributed. Engineering, ICT and health degrees offer the fastest and most stable path into work. On the other hand Arts, humanities, social sciences and journalism deliver clearly weaker employment rates and much higher underemployment in the job market, especially in the first years after graduation. That pattern is structural.

The EU produces roughly four to five million tertiary graduates a year, the US over five million postsecondary awards. A sizable share of those graduates sit in arts, humanities, social sciences, business and law. Because these are mass fields, even a modest gap in employment or underemployment in the job market affects hundreds of thousands of people in every cohort. When you translate abstract percentages into bodies as I did above (although approximatively), you end up with hundreds of thousands of graduates in Europe who are not in work at all, and close to or above a million working below their qualification level. In the US, underemployment alone reaches into the low millions for recent graduates.

The data also show that “having a degree” is no longer a sufficient shield against unemployment. The real divide now runs between degrees that feed into protected or clearly structured professions, and degrees that feed into open, unregulated segments of the labor market. Arts, humanities and many social sciences sit squarely in that second group. They depend on sectors where internships, project work and informal hiring dominate, and where entry-level white-collar tasks are exactly the ones being automated, consolidated or outsourced. That does not make these degrees worthless, but it does make them riskier.

For students, the implication is quite brutal. Choosing arts, humanities or social sciences means accepting a tougher and more unstable transition into work unless you deliberately stack the odds in your favor: applied skills, early work experience, a clear niche, and a portfolio that shows employers what you can do beyond the diploma title.

For universities and policymakers, the challenge is different. They cannot keep enrolling large cohorts into vulnerable fields and then treat labor-market outcomes as an individual failure. If they continue to market all degrees as equal tickets to “employability” while the evidence shows otherwise, they are shifting systemic risk onto the youngest, least powerful actors in the system.

The story that started with one graduate and 150 unanswered applications is a visible symptom of a labor market that no longer knows what to do with a growing share of its own graduates, particularly outside STEM and regulated professions. The statistics make one thing very clear: the problem is bigger than any one student choosing the “wrong” subject. It sits in how economies value different types of knowledge, how institutions guide students into those choices, and how slowly both adjust when reality catches up with the promise.

FAQ: Arts, Humanities and Social Science Graduates on the job market

What are the employment prospects for arts and humanities graduates on the job market in Europe?

Employment prospects for arts and humanities graduates in Europe are weaker than for fields like engineering, ICT and health, but most graduates still find work. Data from OECD and EU labor-force surveys show that arts and humanities graduates have a lower employment rate and face more periods of job search and part-time or temporary contracts. The risk stacks up in the first five years after graduation, when competition is highest and entry-level roles remain scarce.

How do labor market outcomes by field of study differ between arts degrees and STEM degrees?

Labor market outcomes by field of study show a consistent pattern: STEM degrees cluster at the top on employment rates and earnings, while arts, humanities and many social sciences sit lower. STEM graduates move faster into degree-level jobs with clearer professional tracks. Arts and social science graduates more often move through internships, short-term contracts and side jobs before finding a stable role.

What do liberal arts degree underemployment statistics tell us about career risk?

Liberal arts degree underemployment statistics in the United States show how exposed these graduates are. A large share of liberal arts graduates work in jobs that do not formally require a degree, even though they are “employed” on paper. That underemployment reduces early-career earnings and slows progression into specialist roles. The pattern appears in Europe as well, but with some cushioning from public-sector and non-profit jobs.

Is an arts degree a bad investment compared with STEM degrees?

An arts degree is not automatically a bad investment, but it carries higher career risk than many STEM degrees. Graduates still beat non-graduates on employment and lifetime earnings, yet they deal with more unstable entry-level work, more underemployment and flatter wage growth. Students who choose arts or humanities need to treat the degree as one part of a wider strategy that includes skills, experience and networking, not as a job guarantee.

What does youth unemployment among university graduates in Europe look like for social sciences and humanities?

Youth unemployment among university graduates in Europe hits social sciences and humanities harder than most technical fields. Recent graduate unemployment rates are lower than general youth unemployment, but social sciences and humanities sit close to the top of the graduate unemployment ranking. Many young graduates cycle through temporary jobs or internships in cities before they secure a stable position related to their degree.

How serious is underemployment among social science graduates in the United States?

Underemployment among social science graduates in the United States is high and persistent. A large percentage of graduates in sociology, anthropology, criminal justice and similar majors work in roles that do not use their full qualification. Some eventually transition into graduate-level jobs, but others stay in non-graduate work and leave their original field. For students, that means they must build applied skills and work experience early if they want to move out of the underemployment statistics.

What are the job market outcomes for journalism and media degrees today?

Job market outcomes for journalism and media degrees have become more volatile. Newsrooms have shrunk, digital platforms pay little, and AI tools now automate parts of research and basic reporting. Many journalism graduates work in communications, marketing, content production or social media rather than in traditional news. Those who succeed usually combine journalistic training with data skills, multimedia production and a strong portfolio of published work.

Do labor market outcomes by university major still justify choosing arts and humanities?

Job market outcomes by university major justify choosing arts and humanities only when students do it with open eyes and a plan. The data show lower employment rates and higher underemployment compared with many technical and professional majors. Students who combine their degree with clear career goals, internships, practical skills (data, digital, policy, UX, project work) and language skills still create strong careers. Students who rely only on the degree title have a harder time.

How can arts and humanities graduates improve their employment prospects in Europe and the US?

Arts and humanities graduates improve their employment prospects when they align their profile with concrete labor market needs. That means adding targeted skills (data analysis, basic coding, UX, policy research, digital communication), building a visible portfolio, and securing internships or student jobs in relevant organizations. Networking in their sector and learning how to pitch their skills to employers matters as much as the content of the degree.

Are social science and journalism degrees still relevant in an AI-driven job market?

Social science and journalism degrees remain relevant, but their value now depends on how graduates position themselves in an AI-driven job market. Analytical thinking, evidence-based writing, understanding institutions and societies, and ethical reasoning all stay important. The difference is that graduates must also learn to work with AI tools, produce more advanced analysis and storytelling, and prove they offer more than what automated systems can generate.

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