Doctoral Scientists and Engineers in the United States: 1995 Profile (1998)

• Chemistry and engineering doctorates were most likely to be employed in private for-profit companies (55 and 54 percent, respectively). Only 11 percent of social sciences Ph.D.s were similarly employed.

• Twenty percent of psychology Ph.D.s were self-employed. Doctorates in this field were also most likely to work in not-for-profit organizations (9 percent, compared with 5 percent of the total).

• Earth/atmospheric/marine sciences doctorates were employed in government at the highest rate, 21 percent.

Occupation 2 was defined on the survey as the “kind of work you were doing on your principal job held during the week of April 15, 1995.” Thirty-eight percent of science and engineering doctorates were working as scientists (including social scientists and psychologists), 28 percent were postsecondary teachers of science or engineering, 13 percent were top/mid-level managers, and 9 percent were engineers. These occupations were distributed differently within employment sectors and by years since doctorate (see Table 9 and Table 10 ).

• Predictably, most of those working in educational institutions were teachers (62 percent), but 8 percent were top/mid-level managers, including deans, administrators, and department chairs. Another 27 percent were scientists or engineers, with biological scientists being the largest single component of this group (10 percent of the total in educational institutions).

• In private for-profit companies, 21 percent were engineers, 19 percent were top/mid-level managers, and 11 percent were chemists.

• Nearly one-half of those self-employed were psychologists (48 percent).

• The occupations most frequently listed by those in private not-for-profit organizations were top/mid-level managers (21 percent), psychologists (19 percent), and biological scientists (13 percent). These same occupations were the three largest components of the government sector (18, 12, and 15 percent, respectively).

• As years since the doctorate increased, the proportions who were either top/midlevel managers or postsecondary teachers of science or engineering increased. Top/mid-level managers grew from 4 percent for those with 5 or less years since the degree to 18 percent for those who were more than 25 years since doctorate