Postdocs or permanent jobs?

Nearly one-third of the 3450 fresh physics PhDs from the classes of 2011 and 2012 in the US went straight to potentially permanent jobs. While that proportion has stayed steady since 2004, the number of PhDs conferred in physics has been rising. “The market for those with knowledge and skills associated with a physics PhD continues to grow,” according to Physics Doctorates One Year After Degree, a recent report by the Statistical Research Center of the American Institute of Physics. (See http://aip.org/statistics/employment ).

After receiving their degrees, 11% of US citizens and 26% of non-US citizens left the country, mostly for postdoctoral positions. Among those who remained in the US, half of citizens and nearly two-thirds of noncitizens took postdoctoral positions.

In the subfields of nuclear physics and biological physics, more than 70% of new PhDs took postdocs. The percentages were lowest in applied physics and optics and photonics; people in those subfields were more likely to get potentially permanent jobs.