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04 April 2016

Latest (US) Statistics concerning PhD Job Market across Disciplines

Higher education has released an article today concerning what Scott Jaschik, the author, calls a tightening of the PhD market across all disciplines.

The quick quote at the top of the article reads: As number of new Ph.D.s rises, the percentage of people earning a doctorate without a job waiting for them is up. While all disciplines face the problem, some have particularly high debt levels.

Here are the stats relevant to anthropology and social science in general:

Number of Doctorate Recipients:
Field                           2004              2009              2014
Social Sciences          7,043             7,829             8,657

Percent of Doctorate Recipients with Job or Postdoc Commitments:
Field                            2004              2009              2014
Social Sciences          71.3%             72.9%            68.8%

Debt of New Doctoral Degree Graduates, 2014 (we just lost out to Education):
Field                   Mean Cumulative Debt           % with debt greater than $70,000
Social sciences               $34,999                                               22.6%