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• PhD Career Paths at UW - An Update: Notes on Graduate Education May 2001
   
• University/College PhD Employment Results
   
• Department Level PhD Employment Results
   
• Sample of the PhD Survey
   
• Previous Survey (1996)

Introduction:

In recent years, concern has been raised regarding employment prospects for PhD recipients.  Although, historically, PhDs have had the lowest unemployment rates of any group in the U.S. workforce, a number of studies as well as reports in the popular press suggest that the increased production of PhDs has not been matched with a corresponding increase in available tenure track faculty positions.   The reported consequence is that a) PhDs are finding employment in business and other "non-traditional" settings or b) in an attempt to secure faculty positions, are holding successive or long-term postdoctoral appointments or other temporary or part-time work.

In 1997, the Graduate School began to conduct an employment survey covering persons who received PhD degrees from the UW between 1986 and 1996. In 1999, the Graduate School conducted the survey for grads between 1989 and 1999.   This report summarizes key findings from the second survey.  For a break down of the finding of the first survey click here. 

The survey was distributed to faculty advisors in 1999-2000 on behalf of over 4600 UW Ph.D. recipients from 1989 to 1999.  There is an eight year overlap with previous cycle.  A simple survey instrument was used. The changes from the 1997 survey are: added self-employment, seeking employment, employer.

There was a seventy percent response rate (down from 80% for 1996 cycle).

One area of interest is the single percentage point declines in part-time employment and temporary employment compared to the 1996 data.  Further examination shows that the point decline is not specific to any sub-range of graduation years.  It is dispersed equally in the ten year and six year cohort groups.