Does working include writing haikus on a manual typewriter in Starbucks?
Posted on 02/22/2018 2:49:07 PM PST by Academiadotorg
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) is trying to prove that liberal arts majors are gainfully employed but they're not doing so all that clearly.
For one thing, they call the report "The State of the Humanities 2018: Graduates in the Workforce and Beyond." What exactly is beyond the workforce other than unemployment and retirement?
"While their unemployment rate has declined since the Great Recession, humanities graduates had a level of unemployment in 2015 that was modestly higher than the rate for the bachelor’s-holding population as a whole," the report proclaims. "The 4.3% unemployment rate among terminal bachelor’s degree holders in humanities compares to 3.6% among graduates from all fields combined."
But are the ones who are working as baristas? Brian C. Mitchell, who touts the AAAS study on the academe blog maintained by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) claims they are not. "Mainstream and social media tend to portray arts and humanities graduates as underemployed and overeducated, flipping burgers or making cappuccino, a stereotype that is refuted by a recent study," he asserts.
The report itself is a bit less clear on that point:
"Humanities graduates are similar to the entire population of bachelor's degree holders with respect to the likelihood that they engage in key work activities. The share of humanities majors who reported spending more than 10% of their time on managerial and supervisory activities was identical to the share among all fields (58%). Humanities majors were somewhat more likely to be engaged in teaching as well as sales and marketing work and somewhat less likely to be doing STEM-related activities (basic and applied research, design, computer programming, and production), though the share of humanities majors engaged in each of those activities was close to the percentage for all graduates."
Of course, one could be "managing and supervising" a software development firm….or a Starbuck's.
They’re selling French fries.
>>”The State of the Humanities 2018: Graduates in the Workforce and Beyond.” What exactly is beyond the workforce other than unemployment and retirement?<<
Permanent democrat.
But most l.a. majors were there already.
What do you call a Liberal Arts Major with a 4.0 GPA?
“Waiter.”
Put a dollar in one’s G-string just last nite
Then she went across the stage for another dollar. Seemed to be working it
LOL!
A PART TIME waiter.
Unemployed with hundreds of thousands in student loans in default.
History degree here.
I make a very nice living, thank you.
But they should look on the bright side. There’s going to be a huge market opening up soon for armed guards at public schools. All they have to do is pass a background check, buy a gun, get some training and they’re hired. And they’ll be working in the education field. Lot better than flipping burgers.
I cried my eyes out for days when my daughter, my only child, told me she did NOT want to go to college. I have a master’s degree in engineering, am a professional engineer—and I had been putting money in her college fund for 18 years!
To make a long story endless LOL: ten years later she’s working in a financial call center, base salary is $66k and she makes a minimum of another $1k per month in commissions and bonuses. She is happy in her career.
Unlike several of her millenial cousins who earned literally worthless liberal arts degrees, daughter is doing well financially. Her cousins are unemployed or working at low paying jobs, or pursuing worthless master’s degrees because the bachelor’s degree got them nowhere.
I’m thankful things have worked out well for my daughter.
A lot of them are probably loser bloggers.
You know, being a loser, writing a blog.
Does working include writing haikus on a manual typewriter in Starbucks?
The useful ones work cash registers, coffee makers, deep fat fryers, and the pole. The rest spread anti-American propaganda to school children.
I would give one of those a dollar or two but I gave up on those places years ago.
Philosophy major here. Owned 2 bike shops in the 80’s, brief stint as a Prison Warden, 25 years doing circuit board design and radiation effects, now semi-retired running a shooting range. I knew from the start trying to get a job in my major was a recipe for disaster.
History degree for me, too.
Career military, now retired. Lots of History degrees in the military.
you don’t study “liberal arts” or “humanities” to acquire useful technical SALEABLE job skills....
there are some fascinating, beautiful things in the arts and they can add greatly to a person’s cultural and intellectual life....... but taxi driving jobs are being replaced by Uber
I know now as an adult that I would only go into liberal arts if I were a recipient of “family money” and never had to worry about what my salary was. But perversely, those would also be the people who have internships and job offers fall into their laps.
There was a letter to the editor (remember those?) from a graduate of North Texas State University with a bachelor’s degree in history who was furious that the only thing of any use coming out of four years of hard work was that he learned how to type.
In junior high school (remember those?) I never got the hang of geometry and was consigned to the math-averse courses of business administration instead.
In later years, I excelled in algebra and, to my knowledge, had zero use for geometry in my life. But the business courses led me to pursue business and accounting, which became an integral part of my career.
Yay for the sweat-hogs.
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