Degrees and employment

Degrees and employment. The number of bachelor’s degrees in physics awarded by US institutions continues its upward trend. And the percentage of new physics PhD recipients in the US taking postdocs has recently dropped, with a corresponding rise in the percentage accepting potentially permanent jobs.

In 2008, 5769 physics bachelor’s degrees were awarded in the US, up 58% since 1999. Non-US citizens earned 6% of those degrees, compared with 35% and 53% of physics master’s degrees and PhDs, respectively, in 2008, the most recent year for which data are available.

The percentage of physics bachelor’s degrees earned by women has stayed at about 22% over the past decade. African Americans and Hispanic Americans each account for just 3% of the degrees.

Among PhD recipients from the classes of 2007 and 2008, 56% took postdoctoral positions, 7% took other temporary jobs, and 33% accepted potentially permanent jobs.

Median starting salaries for postdocs were $44 000 at universities and related institutions and $60 000 in government; new physics PhD holders in potentially permanent positions earned $48 500 in academia and $85 000 in the private sector.

Those and other data are available in two recent reports by the American Institute of Physics’ Statistical Research Center. To download Physics Undergraduate Degrees, go to http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/undergradtrends.html , and for Physics Doctorates Initial Employment, visit http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/emptrends.html .