Although much concern about the fate of humanities Ph.D.’s has focused on their ability to use their degrees to enter the working world, data on this topic are limited. The best source of information on the immediate plans of humanities Ph.D. holders at the time of their graduation is the SED, which has collected data on the educational histories, funding sources, and postgraduation plans of a large sample of new recipients of research doctorates from U.S. educational institutions for every academic year since 1958. The data presented here describe trends between 1988 and 2008.

Figure III-6, Full Size Supporting Data

The greater prevalence of postdoctoral study among sciences and engineering Ph.D.’s is also reflected in the fact that humanities Ph.D.’s were much likelier to have firm commitments for academic employment (full- and part-time faculty and administrative jobs) than their counterparts in engineering and the sciences. In 1988, 48% of humanities graduates (the bulk of those humanities graduates reporting employment) reported that they would be taking such jobs. Except in the late 1990s, when the share of academic commitments dipped several percentage points, this level of academic employment held throughout the decades examined here. In contrast, the academic employment rate for Ph.D.’s in the social sciences—the scientific field with the greatest proportion of graduates entering such employment—was in the vicinity of 30% over the course of the examined decades. In 1988, the likelihood that an engineering, life sciences, or physical sciences Ph.D. would immediately take an academic position after graduate school was approximately one-third of that for humanities Ph.D.’s. Twenty years later, the likelihood was less than one-fifth of that for new humanities doctorate holders.