Statistics Canada has released a report on labour market outcomes of doctoral program graduates in Canada. The report draws on data from the National Graduates Survey and the Survey of Earned Doctorates. The key findings include the following:
- most PhD graduates found employment in the education sector;
- the median income of PhD graduates was $65,000 two years after graduation;
- graduates in humanities disciplines experienced higher rates of unemployment and part-time employment;
- two years after graduation 19% said they were overqualified for their current job and 30% said that the job they were in required less than a PhD qualification;
- about 27% of PhD graduates left the country after finishing their programs; and
- 24% of those who left for the U.S. returned to Canada within 2 years.
I'd take this conclusion with a grain of salt:
ReplyDelete"most PhD graduates found employment in the education sector"
The report indicates that 56% of 2005 PhD grads are employed in the education sector, according to 2007 survey results. I suspect a large proportion--half or more?--of those are employed in non-tenure track positions and that five years later (rather than just 2 years after graduation) many of those have abandoned the precarious nature of contractual employment in academia altogether.
Why does that matter? Well, it should serve to remind supervisors, career counsellors, and others that most (two-thirds or more?) of their doctoral students will need to be prepared for employment outside academia. PhDs who land outside academia are not the exception; they're the norm. Doctoral education and graduate student services should do a much better job of preparing students for the realities of post-graduate employment.