Physics PhDs

Where do freshly minted physics PhDs work? Do they like their jobs? What do they earn? Three reports put out this year by the Statistical Research Center of the American Institute of Physics (which publishes Physics Today) surveyed graduates from US institutions from the combined classes of 2013 and 2014 about those and related issues.

A year after receiving their PhDs, some 47% of graduates had moved into postdoctoral positions, continuing a decline; a decade earlier that proportion was 67%. The next largest group, 38%, had potentially permanent positions, the majority of which were in the private sector. Another 10% were in temporary positions, mostly in academia—as lecturers, visiting professors, and the like. The remaining 5% were unemployed. Some 22% of new PhD physicists reported feeling underemployed.

The median starting salary for physics PhDs taking potentially permanent private-sector positions was $99 000; in academia, it was $57 000. The median starting pay for postdocs was $66 000 in government labs and $48 000 in university labs.

Overall, 81% of graduates said they would go for a physics PhD if they had to do it again, 11% said they would get a PhD in a different field, and 8% said they would not get a PhD.

For more details, see the reports Physics Doctorates Initial Employment, Physics Doctorates One Year After Degree, and Physics Doctorates: Skills Used and Satisfaction with Employment. They are available at www.aip.org/statistics/employment/phds .