What’s that smell? Bullshit jobs in higher education

Figures & data

Table 1. Changes in full-time staff size and student enrollment, 1976–2011 and 1976–2018.^a

	1976	2011	% change 1976–2011	2018	% change 1976–2018
Faculty	434,000	762,114	+76%	832,119	+92%
Executive/Administrative	97,003	231,602	+139%	255,881	+164%
Other Professionals	150,319	699,867	+366%	830,189	+452%
Nonprofessional Staff	630,511	742,445	+18%	631,675	+0.19%
Student Enrollment	11,012,137	21,010,590	+91%	19,645,918	+78%

Source: National Center for Education Statistics.

^a Calculations relied on various issues (i.e. 2011, 2013, and 2019) of the Digest of Education Statistics (‘Digest’) issued by the National Center for Education Statistics. Specifically, we relied on the information presented in Table 258 (2011 Digest), Table 314.30 (2013 Digest), and Table 303.25 and Table 315.30 (2019 Digest). Additionally, Other Professionals and Nonprofessional Staff occupations were reclassified (i.e. disaggregated) as of fall 2013. Therefore, only the faculty, administrator, and student enrollment categories are comparable with data from 1976 and 2011. To approximate the Other Professionals and Nonprofessional Staff classifications from earlier years, multiple categories from 2018 were combined to approximate the 1976 and 2011 classifications as follows: Other Professionals (librarians, curators, and archivists; student and academic affairs and other education services;) and Nonprofessional Staff (service occupations; sales and related occupations; office and administrative support).

Table 2. Variables and definitions.

Variables	Definitions
Individual characteristics
Age	Natural log of a respondent’s age in years
Wages	Natural log of a respondent’s wages per hour worked
Female	1 – respondent is female
	0 – otherwise
White	1 – respondent is white
	0 – otherwise
Married	1 – respondent is married with spouse present
	0 – otherwise
Masters^a	1 – respondent’s highest degree attained is a masters degree
	0 – otherwise
PhD	1 – respondent’s highest degree attained is a doctorate degree
	0 – otherwise
Supervisor	1 – respondent has a supervisory role
	0 – otherwise
Institutional characteristics:
Four-year	1 – respondent’s employer is a four-year college or university
	0 – respondent’s employer is a two-year college or university
Private school	1 – respondent’s employer is a privately owned academic institution
	0 – respondent’s employer is a publicly owned academic institution
0–499 Employees^b	1 – the number of employees at the respondent’s employer is 499 or less
	0 – otherwise
500–999 Employees	1 – the number of employees at the respondent’s employer is between 500 and 999
	0 – otherwise
1000–4999 Employees	1 – the number of employees at the respondent’s employer is between 1000 and 4999
	0 – otherwise
5000–24,999 Employees	1 – the number of employees at the respondent’s employer is between 5000 and 24,999
	0 – otherwise
Job categories:
Taskmasters	1 – respondent’s principal job code is consistent with Graeber’s taskmasters variety of bullshit jobs^c
	0 – otherwise
Other Professionals	1 – respondent’s principal job was consistent with Graeber’s flunkies, goons, duct tapers, and box tickers^d
	0 – otherwise
Faculty	1 – respondent’s principal job code was post-secondary teaching, they were not currently enrolled in school, and their primary work activity was teaching
	0 – otherwise
Graduate Students	1 – respondent’s principal job code was post-secondary teaching or research, they were currently enrolled in a graduate program, and their primary work activity was teaching or research
	0 – otherwise
Researchers	1 – respondent’s principal job code was basic or applied research, did not teach, and were not enrolled in school
	0 – otherwise
Unclassified	1 – respondent’s principal job did not satisfy any of the prior job categories or did not fit into Graeber’s typology
	0 – otherwise

^a Reference category is bachelors and professional degree holders for Masters and PhD.

^b Reference category is employers with 25,000 or more employees.

^c These included the following principal job codes including top-level managers (e.g. CEO, COO, CFO etc.), education administrators (e.g. provost, registrar), mid-level managers (e.g. natural science managers) as well as occupation codes that had managerial roles according to their reported primary and secondary work activities.

^d These included principal job codes closely aligned with the varieties of bullshit jobs in Graeber (2018, Chapter 2).

Figure 1. Perceived social contribution of a job by position category.

Figure 2. Correlogram.

Table 3: Results – other professionals.

Variable	β	Odds ratio
Other Professionals	−0.705***	0.494
	(0.093)
	(0.093)
Individual characteristics:
Age	0.513***	1.671
	(0.106)
Wages	0.049	1.051
	(0.048)
Female	0.247***	1.279
	(0.059)
White	0.187**	1.205
	(0.065)
Married	0.087	1.089
	(0.064)
Masters	0.262***	1.300
	(0.074)
PhD	0.155	1.167
	(0.082)
Institutional characteristics:
Four-Year	−0.481***	0.618
	(0.090)
Private School	0.078	1.081
	(0.080)
0–499 Employees	−0.064	0.938
	(0.102)
500–999 Employees	−0.071	0.931
	(0.120)
1000–4999 Employees	−0.159	0.853
	(0.120)
5000–24,999 Employees	−0.178	0.837
	(0.095)
Constant	−1.459***	0.232
	(0.389)
n	5323

Notes: Standard errors in parentheses.

*p < 0.05.

**p < 0.01.

***p < 0.001.

Table 4. Results – taskmasters and administrative hubris.

Variable	β	Odds ratio
Taskmasters	0.408**	1.504
	(0.137)
Faculty	0.939***	2.557
	(0.106)
Graduate Students	0.696***	2.005
	(0.113)
Researchers	0.385**	1.469
	(0.137)
Unclassified	0.388*	1.474
	(0.184)
Individual characteristics:
Age	0.383**	1.466
	(0.117)
Wages	0.035	1.036
	(0.050)
Female	0.244***	1.277
	(0.060)
White	0.147*	1.159
	(0.066)
Married	0.062	1.064
	(0.065)
Masters	0.247**	1.281
	(0.075)
PhD	0.030	1.031
	(0.091)
Supervisor	0.314***	1.369
	(0.067)
Institutional characteristics:
Four-Year	−0.417***	0.659
	(0.094)
Private School	0.061	1.063
	(0.082)
0–499 Employees	−0.086	0.917
	(0.103)
500–999 Employees	−0.089	0.915
	(0.121)
1000–4999 Employees	−0.167	0.846
	(0.096)
5000–24,999 Employees	−0.155	0.856
	(0.096)
Constant	−1.739***	0.176
	(0.448)
n	5323

Note: Standard errors in parentheses.

*p < 0.05.

**p < 0.01.

***p < 0.001.

National Center for Educational Statistics. (2011). Digest of Education Statistics, table 258. U.S. Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/

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National Center for Educational Statistics. (2013). Digest of Education Statistics, table 314.30. U.S. Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/

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National Center for Educational Statistics. (2019). Digest of Education Statistics, tables 303.25, 314.10, 314.30, and 315.10. U.S. Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/

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Graeber, D. (2018). Bullshit jobs: A theory. Simon and Schuster.

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Data availability statement

The data that supports the findings of this study are openly available in the Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System at https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/datadownload/. Additionally, the code used to generate the results presented in this paper are available from the authors at [email protected].