How Arts Alumni are Thriving and Adapting in Today’s Workforce

SNAAP Pulse is an invitation-only survey of arts and design alumni offering a unique opportunity to amplify the voices of creative communities.

Arts and design alumni across the United States are navigating a mix of opportunities and evolving dynamics in today’s workforce, according to the latest SNAAP Pulse survey. With 84% employed and 57% working full-time in the arts, most graduates report professional satisfaction and financial security — while also identifying issues, such as the rise of artificial intelligence, funding considerations, and changing government policies — as factors shaping their work. 

This national snapshot draws on the perspectives of more than 5,000 arts alumni from 118 colleges and universities, offering valuable insights into the vibrant and shifting career landscape for creative professionals.

In Spring 2025, 5,361 alumni from 118 US-based colleges and universities responded to the first SNAAP Pulse survey – an ongoing data collection survey effort. The survey asked questions about respondents’ experiences at work, both within and outside of creative fields, and highlighted challenges faced by arts alumni at work by asking about employment, satisfaction, and concerns. The following figures and statistics give an overview of the post-graduation experiences of the arts and design alumni population included in the SNAAP Pulse sample.

Figure 1 shows survey respondents’ employment status.* Of those who responded, 84% are employed, including full-time, self-employed, and part-time workers. 57% are employed full-time in the arts. 12% of respondents reported not being in the workforce.

Figure 2 shows the geographic distribution of survey respondents, with darker colors showing states that have a greater rate of representation. Most respondents are currently based in California (15.4%), followed by Illinois (10.0%), New York (8.9%), and Texas (6.7%). All 50 states are represented in the sample.

Respondents were also asked to answer the following question: ​“What challenges do you currently face in your work?” Figure 3 shows the frequency of words appearing in these responses, with the size of each word corresponding to its relative frequency. Words that appeared often in the responses include ​“AI,” ​“funding,” and ​“government.” The word ​‘AI’ appeared at least once in 9.4% of responses, ​“funding” appeared in 8.9% of responses, and ​“government” appeared in 7.6% of responses.

Respondents also indicated whether they agree or disagree with six statements related to their satisfaction and concerns with different aspects of their careers. Figure 4 shows the questions and the range of responses. Encouragingly, the majority of respondents agreed that they enjoy their work, feel financially secure, and feel confident that they will continue to have work. However, they expressed some feelings of concern as well. Most respondents agreed that they were concerned about the impact of technology and the influence of government policy on their work.

Technical Notes

* All data are shown as weighted percentages or frequencies using the panel weights detailed in the SNAAP Technical Documentation.

** The LLM Claude was used to select words that are ​‘unimportant’ and those words were excluded in creating the word cloud, as well as all words contained in the question ​“What challenges do you currently face at work?”. The minimum weighted frequency shown is 100.

*** Responses of ​“Neither Agree Nor Disagree” are excluded from this visualization. Because of this, percentages do not add to 100%.