Share of New Doctorate Recipients in Humanities and Arts with a Definite Commitment of Employment or Postdoctoral Study, 1990–2020

Share of New Doctorate Recipients in Humanities and Arts with a Definite Commitment of Employment or Postdoctoral Study, 1990–2020

In 2020, new PhDs in the arts and humanities (data are not available for the fields separately) were substantially less likely to report a definite commitment for employment upon graduation than their counterparts who graduated three decades earlier. The total share with a job commitment fell from 63% of the new PhDs in 1990 to 41% in 2016. Modest increases in most of the subsequent years, however, had brought the share up to 47% by 2020.

While the share of doctoral recipients leaving their graduate programs with job commitments declined for many years, the share with commitments for postdoctoral study grew slowly but steadily. In 1990, around 4% of PhDs leaving their programs had commitments for postdoctoral study. By 2020, the share was 12%.17

Endnotes

• 17National Science Foundation, Survey of Earned Doctorates.