Chapter 3: Science & Engineering Indicators 93
Unemployment and Underemployment
Doctorate-holding scientists and engineers have an extremely low unemployment rate. The 1991 unemployment rate for all these scientists and engineers was 1.4 percent--far below the overall U.S. unemployment rate of 6 percent. In only two fields--chemistry (2.3 percent) and sociology/anthropology (2.9 percent)--did doctoral scientists have
unemployment rates exceeding 2 percent.
Underemployment of doctoral scientists and engineers is also rare. In 1991, only 1.7 percent of doctorate-holding scientists and engineers in the workforce were
either (1) holding part-time positions when they would have preferred working full time, or (2) working in non-S& E occupations when they would have preferred S& E jobs. However, underemployment in the social sciences was relatively high--3.5
percent; it was even higher in the social science subfield of sociology/anthropology.
Despite these numbers, several professional associations (click here for footnote 18) have been documenting employment difficulties faced by new Ph.D. recipients, focusing on one issue in particular--the lack of
permanent, full-time positions in academia. According to these groups, competition among new Ph.D. recipients for each tenure-track opening is fierce; many new doctorate-holders are becoming increasingly discouraged after long, unsuccessful job
searches.(Click here for footnote 19.)
The apparent oversupply of doctoral scientists in some fields is being blamed on
- perceived cutbacks in basic research funding.
- growth of "big science" projects (Flam 1992).
- the exodus of scientists from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries (an already overcrowded job market is being flooded by these new arrivals).(Click here for footnote 20.)
- tight state budgets that have resulted in cutbacks and hiring freezes at state-supported institutions (Brennan, Rawls, and Zurer 1992; and Cipra 1991).
Some doctoral scientists unable to find academic posts are reluctantly taking second and third postdoctoral research positions.(Click here for footnote 21.) The most recent NSF data (which cover years through
1991), however, do not show a sizeable increase in the number of postdoctorate appointments (SRS 1992c).
Although scientists have been vocal in their complaints about the lack of jobs, few data are currently available to support their contentions. The most recent comprehensive, statistically valid doctoral employment data are for 1991; 1993 data are not
yet available. There is a smattering of data collected by professional associations that points to a tightening of the Ph.D. job market in the 1990s. For example, data collected by the American Institute of Physics show the proportion of employed
doctoral recipients who took more than 6 months to secure permanent positions increasing from 13 percent in 1989 to 22 percent in 1991. (Additional numbers provided by professional associations on the worsening job market faced by their members
appear in some of the footnotes in this section.) Also, data on beginning salary offers to doctoral degree candidates may indicate a plentiful supply of applicants for available jobs. Average annual salary offers in mathematics and physics fell
between 1989 and 1991. (See text table 3-4.) Although beginning salary offers for physicists appear to have increased after 1991, those received by mathematicians continued to fall, and those received
by chemists did not increase appreciably between 1992 and 1993.
From another perspective, labor market experts, and even fellow members of the S& E community, have been contending that there is no shortage of challenging work opportunities for doctoral scientists.(Click here for
footnote 22.)Most of those opportunities are in industry and some will be in nonscientific specialties, "where science or engineering training is not only invaluable but also a growing concomitant of management success and industrial and
governmental leadership so necessary in this technological age" (White 1991).
In the past, there was considerable resistance among new doctoral scientists to employment in the industrial sector.(Click here for footnote 23.)Many in the academic community held the belief that the most
important work--basic research--was done in a university setting, and that only university laboratories could offer the academic freedom necessary to explore new ideas. But the stereotype of industry as a place where only second-rate research is
conducted has been fading because:
- The academic world has become more constrained. The quest for funding has become a never-ending mission. Because funding is so difficult to secure, scientists may not be able to follow their own research agenda; instead, they may be limited to
conducting research in areas of interest to those organizations willing to provide the funding (Barinaga 1992). (See chapter 5 for a discussion of the academic R& D
sector.)
- The growing number of successful industry-university collaborations (see chapter 4) has helped erase the anti-industry stigma (Holden 1991).
Footnote 18:
The most vocal of these professional associations is a relatively new organization called the Young Scientists Network. Others voicing similar concerns are the American Institute of Physics, the American Mathematical Society, and the American
Chemical Society. Surveys of the latter society's membership show unemployment among new doctoral chemists (which did not rise above 4 percent during the recession years in the early 1980s), increasing sharply in recent years. American Mathematical
Society data show the unemployment rate of new mathematics doctorate recipients, which is normally about 2 percent, at an all time high of 5 percent in 1992. See McClure (1992).
Footnote 19:
According to the American Mathematical Society (AMS), new faculty recruitment in mathematics departments is down dramatically. AMS documented that there were 17 percent fewer full time positions in doctorate granting mathematics departments in
1990/91 than in the preceding year; positions in masters and bachelors granting institutions were also down sharply, 34 percent and 18 percent, respectively. See McClure (1992).
Footnote 20:
For example, as many as 300 mathematicians from the former Soviet Union have sought employment in the United States in the last 2 years. According to data collected by the American Mathematical Society, the ratio of applicants to positions in the AMS
register made a more than 180 degree turnaround--from 1:2 in the mid 1980s to nearly 3:1 in 1992. Immigrants accounted for 13 percent of new Ph.D. recipients hired by doctorate granting departments. See McClure
(1992).
Footnote 21:
The American Chemical Society's survey of its membership revealed that the proportion of new chemistry Ph.D. recipients taking postdoctorate positions increased from 34 percent in 1990 to 37 percent in 1991 to 45 percent in 1992.
Footnote 22:
Some physicists have found rewarding work in software engineering, patent law, health physics, accounting, and many other fields. And mathematicians are finding opportunities in the insurance and banking industries and even in the environmental field
where "modeling should provide substantial opportunity for applied mathematicians for years to come" (Seitelman 1991). Alan Chynoweth, head of research at Bellcore, told a Science reporter (Flam
1992) that " there's no shortage of really interesting work to be done if people are willing to be flexible." Most physicists do find work in physics, although the jobs they get may not have been their first choice.
Footnote 23:
In addition, many new doctoral physicists and chemists are unprepared for jobs in industry, having "never set foot in an industrial laboratory (let alone a factory)" (Weatherall 1992).
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