Graduates · Ontario · 2021 Census
What can you do with a liberal arts and general studies degree?
What graduates actually work as, from Statistics Canada, beside what Job Bank says about each job: openings, pay, and what it takes.
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What can you do with a liberal arts and general studies degree in Ontario?
In the 2021 Census, the most common jobs among employed Ontarians aged 25 to 34 with a bachelor's degree or higher in liberal arts and general studies were elementary school and kindergarten teachers (4.3%), professional occupations in advertising, marketing and public relations (3.8%) and retail salespersons and visual merchandisers (3.8%). The 12 most common jobs cover only 31.3% of graduates, so liberal arts and general studies leads to a wide spread of work rather than one career.
What graduates really do
What jobs do liberal arts and general studies graduates in Ontario actually have?
Ontario is published for the liberal arts and sciences, general studies and humanities group, so the lead table is Ontario graduates aged 25 to 34.
| Job | Share of graduates | People | Job Bank outlook | Median pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elementary school and kindergarten teachers | 4.3% | 665 | Moderate | $46.15/hr |
| Professional occupations in advertising, marketing and public relationsOur guide | 3.8% | 595 | Limited | $37.02/hr |
| Retail salespersons and visual merchandisers | 3.8% | 585 | Limited | $17.95/hr |
| Administrative officers | 2.8% | 435 | Limited | $29.38/hr |
| Transport truck driversOur guide | 2.6% | 400 | Moderate | $26.00/hr |
| Other customer and information services representatives | 2.3% | 365 | Very limited | $21.50/hr |
| Retail and wholesale trade managers | 2.2% | 345 | Moderate | $43.27/hr |
| Human resources professionalsOur guide | 2.1% | 330 | Limited | $39.90/hr |
| Advertising, marketing and public relations managers | 2.1% | 320 | Very limited | $57.44/hr |
| Administrative assistantsOur guide | 2.1% | 320 | Moderate | $26.67/hr |
| Early childhood educators and assistantsOur guide | 1.6% | 255 | Good | $22.00/hr |
| Social and community service workers | 1.6% | 250 | Moderate | $26.50/hr |
How does it look for other groups?
These are different groups of people, shown separately on purpose: a different place, age group or level of education. Do not read them as one comparison.
| Job | Share of graduates | People | Job Bank outlook | Median pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail salespersons and visual merchandisers | 5.3% | 205 | Limited | $17.95/hr |
| Material handlers | 3.7% | 140 | Limited | $21.50/hr |
| Food counter attendants, kitchen helpers and related support occupations | 3.4% | 130 | Limited | $17.95/hr |
| Transport truck driversOur guide | 3.1% | 120 | Moderate | $26.00/hr |
| Other customer and information services representatives | 3% | 115 | Very limited | $21.50/hr |
| Store shelf stockers, clerks and order fillers | 2.9% | 110 | Moderate | $17.95/hr |
| Retail and wholesale trade managers | 2.5% | 95 | Moderate | $43.27/hr |
| General office support workers | 2.1% | 80 | Moderate | $23.08/hr |
| Food and beverage servers | 2.1% | 80 | Limited | $17.95/hr |
| Cashiers | 2% | 75 | Limited | $17.95/hr |
| Construction trades helpers and labourers | 2% | 75 | Moderate | $27.00/hr |
| Restaurant and food service managers | 1.7% | 65 | Limited | $27.47/hr |
Do those jobs have openings?
Which of those jobs are hiring?
1 of the 12 most common jobs have a good or very good Ontario outlook from Job Bank for 2025 to 2027, together covering 1.6% of these graduates. Outlook is a province-wide forecast of openings against job seekers, not a promise for any one town or employer.
- Early childhood educators and assistants: Job Bank outlook good, 1.6% of these graduates.
When the degree is not enough
What does the degree not lead to on its own?
A liberal arts or general studies credential is general. It does not lead to a regulated profession on its own, and many people use it as a base for transferring into a specific degree or program.
Teaching needs a university degree and a teacher education program, so a shorter credential would need further study first. Whether credits transfer depends on the receiving school, so ask it before you count on them.
Routes that need more than the degree
Become an Ontario certified teacher
The Ontario College of Teachers describes a consecutive program as a four-semester program leading to a Bachelor of Education, open to students who have completed an undergraduate degree. Its becoming-a-teacher page lists a postsecondary degree of at least three years plus a four-semester teacher education program, then an application to the College for certification. Ontario College of Teachers: teacher education program providersAdd a college graduate certificate
Ontario Colleges states that graduate certificates require a university degree or a college certificate or diploma for admission, and build on knowledge and experience from earlier postsecondary study. Check each program on ontariocolleges.ca for its own entry requirements. Ontario Colleges: program types
Jobs to look at
Careers worth a closer look
Full guides: what the work is really like, who hates it, what it pays, and the route in.
- TeacherGetting thirty people who did not choose to be there to learn something, five times a day, and marking it afterwards.Career guide
- Marketing specialistGetting the right people to notice something and act on it, then proving with numbers whether it worked.Career guide
- Human resources professionalHiring, paying, training and sometimes letting go of the people an organisation depends on, inside rules that exist for good reasons.Career guide
- Event plannerGetting a hundred people, a venue, a caterer and a schedule to all arrive in the right place on the same day, calmly.Career guide
- JournalistFinding out what is true, writing it so people read it, and getting it out before somebody else does.Career guide
Read this before you rely on it
What the numbers do not show
- The Census is from 2021. Jobs and hiring have moved since. Job Bank's outlook is current to 2025 to 2027.
- It counts employed people and what they do, not whether they wanted that job or use their degree in it. A graduate working as a retail supervisor is counted in the data exactly like one working in their field.
- It is a 25% sample, and Statistics Canada rounds every count to a multiple of five. Small groups are noisy.
- For Ontario the Census publishes bachelor's degree or higher together, so those tables include master's and doctoral graduates.
- Each person is counted once, by their highest credential. A person who finished a diploma and then a degree appears under the degree, not the diploma.
- The 12 jobs shown are the most common, not all of them. The rest of the graduates are spread across hundreds of other jobs.
Sources: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population, tables 98-10-0447-01; Job Bank (Employment and Social Development Canada) Ontario outlooks and wages, linked on each job. We join them by occupation code and change neither.
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