This Is Where New Ph.D.s Find Jobs

Where do new doctoral-degree holders choose to work? A growing number of them are finding work in industry, according to federal data.

Of the 21,450 Ph.D. recipients in 2022 who said they had accepted jobs in the United States, 48.1 percent were headed to jobs in industry — which has absorbed an increasing share of Ph.D.s over time. That’s up from 20.9 percent in 1992, according to the most recent Survey of Earned Doctorates, an annual census of doctorate holders.

During that 30-year period, industry was the only one of the five employment sectors tracked by the survey whose share of Ph.D.s grew. The other sectors were academe, government, nonprofit organizations, and “other” (which is mainly elementary and secondary schools). The share of degree holders planning to work in academe fell during that period from roughly half to about a third.

Some scholars are applying for jobs in academe and industry to create a buffer if their tenure-track job search goes awry. However, for some scholars — in fields like computer science or engineering, for example — landing an industry job has long been the norm. In 1992, about six in 10 engineering Ph.D.s had committed to industry jobs; 30 years later that figure rose to almost 80 percent.

For more on new Ph.D.s and industry employment, see below: