Social scientists are chatting about this new report on job placement rates for political science PhDs on the market in 2017-2018.
Only 1 in 4 on the market obtained a tenure-track placement. 1 in 5 obtained a postdoc, 1 in 5 obtained "academic, non-tenure-track." See Table 1.
Post-docs are increasing. From report: "Researchers have noted, particularly in the natural sciences, the process of hiring post-doctoral positions has been shown to be less transparent, and less equitable....Some researchers acknowledge they are less likely to even publicly post open post-doctoral positions, and rather rely on informal networks to fill open positions with new PhDs."
https://www.apsanet.org/Portals/54/APSA%20Files/Data%20Reports/Employment%20Data/Graduate_Placement_Report_2017-2018_FINAL.pdf?ver=2019-06-20-144103-220
All national academic associations should produce annual reports like this and PhD seekers should review the relevant data.
This kind of report is at least twenty years overdue.
Quote from: Cheerful on June 28, 2019, 12:33:33 PM
All national academic associations should produce annual reports like this and PhD seekers should review the relevant data.
And all PhD-granting departments should make their placement information readily and publicly available, yeah.
My field has been doing this for a while now (starting ~15 years ago; we're now at the point where almost everyone posts this information, and where the field's main association collects this and other data), and a number of different data-collection efforts have grown up around it. It's been really important in changing the conversations we have over the job market, and in opening everyone's eyes.