First, some facts about employment and humanities: 

• The reported unemployment rate for all degree holders was 2.17% and 2.13% for humanities degree holders.  [source] 
• Humanities concentrators are employed in a wide variety of occupations including arts & entertainment, business & finance, sales, leadership roles, and more. [source] 
• Data reveal that graduates with bachelor’s degrees in the humanities earn salaries comparable to a number of other majors, including business management and public policy. Salaries for humanities concentrators are also comparable to average earnings for all bachelor’s degree holders. 
• Humanities concentrators’ incomes over their career outpaces graduates from other fields, including degrees assumed to have a higher return on investment (ROI). [source] 

Add in that employers actively seek humanities concentrators’ skills: 

• Employers are looking for graduates with skills the humanities foster, such as critical thinking and ethical judgment. [source] 
• Employers seek hires with foreign language skills. [source] 
• Business and STEM leaders routinely praise the humanities. [source] 

So, why are some employers still so focused on your concentration? Sometimes it’s assumptions and sometimes, it is truly a way for organizations to trim an applicant pool – sad, but true. This means that you need to be ready to talk about your degree (and why it makes you a BETTER hire) to employers and hiring managers. Below is a cheat sheet for some of the skills and talking points to include in your application materials and interview answers! 

Skills pitch for the present: 

• Critical Thinking & Analytical Reasoning – draw parallels between your studies, projects, and research papers with the job responsibilities and qualifications of analysis. Conceptual and analytical skills of humanities concentrators stand out. 
• Decision Making – the humanities often take different approaches to solving some of the world’s challenges. Make a connection between how your degree offers a different approach to a problem the organization is trying to solve, and how that is a value add 
• Language Skills – 1 in 4 U.S. employers lost business due to a lack of foreign language skills, and 56% of employers say their foreign language demand will increase in the next five years. Make sure these are on your resume, along with your proficiency level! 

Skills pitch for the future: 

• Humanities Skills Cannot Be Replaced By A.I. – Skills like empathy, communication, persuasion, personal Service, problem solving, and strategic decision making are invaluable to employers [source] 
• Flexibility = Adaptability – the wide range of skills you learn as a humanities concentrator make you nimble. Job functions change quickly, and new jobs are being invented every day. Concentrators with a high degree of specialized technical skills will find pivoting more difficult than humanities concentrators.  

For more data on the value of humanities, check out the Study the Humanities Toolkit and the accompanying podcast, “What Are You Going To Do With That?”