AIP Reports Look At Physics Education and Employment

AIP’s Division of Education and Employment Statistics tracks and reports on trends of importance to the physics community. Within the past half-year it has released a number of reports summarizing data gathered on physics degrees, jobs and salaries. Highlights from those reports are quoted below:

1995-96 Academic Workforce Report: (Pub. No. R-392.2, March 1997.) “Although academia continues to be the largest single employer of PhD physicists who remain in physics...only 5% of 1995 PhD recipients who remained in the U.S. secured potentially permanent faculty positions within six months of completing their degrees. The vast majority of the remainder went on to postdoctoral fellowships, primarily in academia, or found potentially permanent employment in private industry.” Highlights of this survey, which was drawn from physics departments across the country, include the following: For 1995-96, the estimated number of full-time physics faculty equaled 8,450. Of that number, 60% were at PhD-granting institutions. For those departments which answered questions on diversity, 2% of the faculty were African-American, 2% were Hispanic, 9% were Asian and 87% were white. The average turnover rate for faculty positions was 5.2%; the retirement rate was unchanged from 1993-94 at just over 2%. A larger percentage of open positions went to women at undergraduate departments than at PhD-granting departments.

Physicists in Government: (Pub. No. R-398.2, April 1997.) “Although the educational sphere remains a fundamental career choice of those with physics degrees, government has always played a major role in shaping physics-related careers.” Based on a 1994 survey of Sigma Pi Sigma members with physics degrees employed by government, this report finds that “Government workers with a physics background are more than twice as likely to have PhDs as their colleagues in the private sector...but less likely than those in the education sector.” The most common occupation identified by government employees with physics degrees is “scientist,” although “one-third of the state and local workers and those in non-scientific federal agencies are in such diverse occupations as air pollution specialist, chief information officer, compliance inspector, lawyer, Spanish interviewer, and tax examiner.”

Society Membership Survey: Salaries 1996: (Pub. No. R-311.09a, April 1997.) This biennial survey, based on data reported by randomly- selected U.S. members of AIP’s ten Member Societies, finds that “the median annual salary for full-time employed society members with PhDs reached $65,000, with master’s degrees, $55,000, and with bachelor’s degrees, $50,000.” Median salaries in government and federally-funded R&D centers “are staying slightly ahead of inflation,” while salaries for those in industry and universities with 11-12 month contracts “fell behind the rate of inflation.” For those earning PhDs within the last 10 years, women “report average salaries comparable to their male colleagues...Among members in later stages of their careers, industrial salaries for women are somewhat lower than for males.” The percentage of women with PhDs “who are unemployed or working part-time has increased slightly since 1994,” while the corresponding percentage for men has decreased. (A one-page summary of this report is free; the entire 15-page report may be obtained for $15. See ordering information below.)

Enrollments and Degrees Report: (Pub. No. R-151.33, April 1997.) “The US physics community is in a period of adjustment. Enrollments in degree programs for both graduate and undergraduate majors are experiencing substantial declines,” the report finds. “A decade-long increase in physics doctorate production appears to be leveling off, with the 1995 degree total at 1,461.” First-year graduate physics enrollment continues to decline, dropping 26% from 1992. This decrease is occurring among both US and non-US students, “although the US students are falling off at a greater rate than their non-US counterparts.” While “introductory physics course enrollments have remained strong, reaching approximately 380,000 students in 1996,” the number of bachelor’s degrees conferred dropped to 4,263 in 1995, “the lowest this figure has been in three decades.”

1996 Bachelor’s Degree Recipients Report: (Pub. No. R-211.28, June 1997.) “In the past few years, many physics departments have experienced declining undergraduate enrollments. The number of physics bachelor’s degrees conferred in 1996 (4173) has dropped 17% from the recent high in 1989. The physics community has not seen undergraduate degree production this low since the late 1950s.” Data on junior-level enrollments indicate that this trend might continue for at least two more years. The decline in physics bachelor’s degrees has been two and a half times as great at departments with physics graduate programs as at physics departments only offering undergraduate degrees. For those 1996 physics bachelors with a potentially permanent full-time position, the median starting salary is $31,000. Almost two-thirds of those entering the job market with a bachelor’s degree intend to pursue advanced study at some time in the future. While 33% of those pursuing graduate degrees do so in physics, “a growing fraction...are choosing to study in cross- disciplinary areas such as medical and health physics.”

1996 Initial Employment Follow-Up of 1995 Physics Degree Recipients: (Pub. No. R-282.19, July 1997.) For the 1994-95 academic year, US physics departments granted 1,461 PhDs, 985 professional master’s degrees, and 4,263 bachelor’s degrees. “Non-citizens made up 48% of these new physics PhDs, 39% of the professional masters and 8% of the bachelors. Women made up 12% of these new physics PhDs, 17% of the professional masters and 17% of the bachelors.” For new degree recipients at both the bachelor’s and PhD levels heading into the workforce, the numbers remaining unemployed the winter after receiving their degrees declined compared to the previous year. New PhDs were more likely to accept potentially permanent positions than the previous year’s class, and less likely to take postdoctoral positions. Of those accepting potentially permanent jobs in the US, “46% were working outside the field of physics.”

All the reports cited above can be ordered by calling 301-209-3070. They are available free of charge unless noted otherwise.