Natalia Mudd, employability adviser at the University of Bristol, explores the latest outcomes data for social sciences graduates
Social sciences graduates embark on a wide variety of career paths, reflecting the diverse and versatile nature of their education. They have a strong grip on many key employability skills that are highly valued by employers across multiple sectors. In the 2021/22 Graduate Outcomes survey, from the 29,805 respondents from social sciences backgrounds, just over 85% were in employment or further study.
Top three employer industries for social sciences
The most common industry for social sciences graduates to enter was education (18%). It's worth noting that this was largely due to the fact that 66.1% of education graduates went into this industry - by contrast, just 4% of law graduates did so.
The second most common industry to employ social sciences graduates was local and central government - some 13.7% of all social sciences graduates reported that they work within this industry. Graduates from all social sciences were well represented, however, sociology and politics graduates were the most likely to work in this field (23.9% and 19.9% respectively).
The government sector was closely followed by legal and accountancy sector, with 12.7% of all social sciences respondents working within this industry. As with education above there is a disparity when it comes to the diversity of social sciences backgrounds. Graduates from law were the most likely to work within the legal and accountancy sector (42.2%), while only 0.2% of education graduates reported working in this sector.
Disparity within social sciences
A significant proportion (37.2% on average) of respondents who were in employment were in roles which are classed as non-graduate by UK Standard Occupational Classification (SOC). This statistic is highest among graduates in sociology (46.6%) and psychology (45.9%). On the other hand, geography and law graduates are most likely to be in a positive graduate destination (75% and 71.3% respectively).
Graduates from these backgrounds are generally positive about their roles with 81.9% reporting that their main activity is meaningful.
Salary
In the 2021/22 Graduate Outcomes survey the average salary of social sciences graduates ranged from £24,239 to £30,559, depending on the subject studied and whether they pursued further study after graduation.
There are gender differences. Male respondents reported higher average salaries across all social sciences backgrounds. Graduates most affected by the gender pay gap were those with an education background where male respondents without further study reported a 10% higher average salary than female respondents without further study. Social sciences graduates least likely to be affected by the gender pay gap were those from a geography background where the gap between average salaries for men and women was 2%.
Further education and training
A significant number of social sciences graduates opted to continue their education (8.6% of all respondents from social sciences backgrounds reported pursuing fulltime further study). Among this group of respondents Masters type degrees were the most popular option, accounting for 56.1% of all choices. Professional qualifications and postgraduate diplomas or certificates were also popular options with 15.3% and 19.6% of respondents respectively stating that they were working towards those.
Challenges and opportunities
Social sciences graduates pursue a range of careers across various sectors. While there are challenges in some fields, the graduates from these backgrounds were generally positive about their roles with 81.9% reporting that their main activity was meaningful.
This article was first published in the 2024/25 edition of What do graduates do?
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