Graduates · Ontario · 2021 Census
What can you do with a sociology 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 sociology degree in Ontario?
In the 2021 Census, the most common jobs among employed Canadians aged 25 to 64 with a bachelor's degree in sociology were social and community service workers (5.3%), elementary school and kindergarten teachers (3.9%) and human resources professionals (3.1%). The 12 most common jobs cover only 32.6% of graduates, so sociology leads to a wide spread of work rather than one career.
What graduates really do
What jobs do sociology graduates in Canada actually have?
Statistics Canada publishes sociology on its own only for Canada. The Ontario table below is the whole social sciences group, not sociology alone.
| Job | Share of graduates | People | Job Bank outlook | Median pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social and community service workers | 5.3% | 3,260 | Moderate | $26.50/hr |
| Elementary school and kindergarten teachers | 3.9% | 2,400 | Moderate | $46.15/hr |
| Human resources professionalsOur guide | 3.1% | 1,920 | Limited | $39.90/hr |
| Administrative officers | 3% | 1,850 | Limited | $29.38/hr |
| Retail and wholesale trade managers | 2.4% | 1,505 | Moderate | $43.27/hr |
| Administrative assistants | 2.4% | 1,480 | Moderate | $26.67/hr |
| Professional occupations in advertising, marketing and public relationsOur guide | 2.4% | 1,475 | Limited | $37.02/hr |
| Police officers (except commissioned)Our guide | 2.3% | 1,410 | Moderate | $50.55/hr |
| Retail salespersons and visual merchandisers | 2.3% | 1,410 | Limited | $17.95/hr |
| Social workersOur guide | 1.9% | 1,200 | Moderate | $38.66/hr |
| Other customer and information services representatives | 1.9% | 1,165 | Very limited | $21.50/hr |
| Seniors managers - public and private sector | 1.7% | 1,070 | No Job Bank outlook | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professional occupations in advertising, marketing and public relationsOur guide | 3.5% | 2,435 | Limited | $37.02/hr |
| Retail salespersons and visual merchandisers | 2.7% | 1,850 | Limited | $17.95/hr |
| Social policy researchers, consultants and program officers | 2.4% | 1,670 | Moderate | $44.62/hr |
| Social and community service workers | 2.4% | 1,660 | Moderate | $26.50/hr |
| Administrative officers | 2.4% | 1,655 | Limited | $29.38/hr |
| Post-secondary teaching and research assistants | 2.3% | 1,605 | No Job Bank outlook | — |
| Other customer and information services representatives | 2.2% | 1,560 | Very limited | $21.50/hr |
| Retail and wholesale trade managers | 2.1% | 1,450 | Moderate | $43.27/hr |
| Human resources professionalsOur guide | 2.1% | 1,425 | Limited | $39.90/hr |
| Economists and economic policy researchers and analysts | 2% | 1,415 | Limited | $51.28/hr |
| Advertising, marketing and public relations managers | 1.9% | 1,330 | Very limited | $57.44/hr |
| Elementary school and kindergarten teachers | 1.7% | 1,190 | Moderate | $46.15/hr |
Do those jobs have openings?
Which of those jobs are hiring?
None of the 12 most common jobs for these graduates has a good or very good Ontario outlook from Job Bank for 2025 to 2027; the best-rated are listed below. That means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hired. Outlook is a province-wide forecast of openings against job seekers, not a promise for any one town or employer.
- Social and community service workers: Job Bank outlook moderate, 5.3% of these graduates.
- Elementary school and kindergarten teachers: Job Bank outlook moderate, 3.9% of these graduates.
- Retail and wholesale trade managers: Job Bank outlook moderate, 2.4% of these graduates.
- Administrative assistants: Job Bank outlook moderate, 2.4% of these graduates.
- Police officers (except commissioned): Job Bank outlook moderate, 2.3% of these graduates.
- Social workers: Job Bank outlook moderate, 1.9% of these graduates.
When the degree is not enough
What does the degree not lead to on its own?
A sociology degree teaches you to study how groups, institutions and communities work, and to write about it clearly. It is not a licence for any regulated profession by itself.
Roles such as social worker, teacher or human resources professional each have their own further steps, set by the regulator or the employer.
Routes that need more than the degree
Register as a social worker or social service worker
The Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers says graduates of an accredited bachelor of social work, an accredited master of social work or an approved social service work diploma meet its academic requirements for registration. A sociology degree is not on that list, so check with the College before assuming it counts. Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers: students and new graduatesBecome 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.
- Social workerHelping people and families get through crises and hard systems, from housing and child safety to mental health and end of life.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
- TeacherGetting thirty people who did not choose to be there to learn something, five times a day, and marking it afterwards.Career guide
- Police officerGoing to the calls nobody else will go to, mostly talking people down, and writing up every bit of it afterwards.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
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 98-10-0403-01 and 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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