National Academies Press: OpenBook
« Previous: EMPLOYMENT STATUS
Suggested Citation:"UNEMPLOYMENT RATES." National Research Council. 1998. Doctoral Scientists and Engineers in the United States: 1995 Profile. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9524.
×
  • The remaining 11 percent of the science and engineering doctorates were not employed, the majority of whom (8 percent of the total population) were retired. Chemistry and agricultural/environmental sciences had the highest proportions retired, 11 percent each. In computer sciences, where 99 percent of the doctorates were under age 55, no one was retired.

Reasons for Not Working

  • As previously mentioned, retirement was the status of the large majority of those not working and consequently was the most frequently named reason for not working (72 percent cited this reason). After retirement, the reason most frequently given was “suitable job not available” (10 percent), followed by “did not need or want to work” (9 percent) (see Table 5 ).

Reasons for Working Part-Time

  • Of all those working part-time, 36 percent said they were doing so because they “did not need or want to work full-time.” Among psychology doctorates (the group with the highest proportion employed part-time), 43 percent cited this reason for working part-time (see Table 6 ).

  • The second most frequent reason, “retired or semi-retired,” was cited by 33 percent of the science and engineering doctorates who held part-time employment. Approximately one-half of chemistry and physics/astronomy doctorates employed part-time cited this reason.

  • Twenty-five percent of science and engineering doctorates employed part-time gave “family responsibilities” as a reason. This reason was most frequently cited by psychology doctorates (40 percent).

  • The reason “suitable full-time job not available” was chosen by 22 percent of those part-time employed. This reason was cited most frequently by physics/ astronomy doctorates (35 percent).

Unemployment Rates

When those who were retired and those who were not employed and not seeking work are removed from the data set, the residual is the labor force. In 1995 the size of the science and engineering labor force was 492,100 (compared with 542,500 in the total science and engineering population). The labor force is used as the base in unemployment rate calculations because it excludes those who are voluntarily not employed. The unemployment picture of science and engineering doctorates is examined in this section.

Suggested Citation:"UNEMPLOYMENT RATES." National Research Council. 1998. Doctoral Scientists and Engineers in the United States: 1995 Profile. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9524.
×
  • In 1995, 1.5 percent of all science and engineering doctorates in the labor force were unemployed and looking for work. Chemistry doctorates, at 2.2 percent, had the highest unemployment rate, whereas computer sciences and social sciences had the lowest rates, 0.9 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively (see Table 7 ).

  • By gender, there was no difference in the unemployment rate for science and engineering doctorates overall. Two fields, however, had notable differences in the rates by gender: physics/astronomy with female unemployment rates at 3.7 percent compared with men at 1.4 percent and engineering with rates for females at 4.7 percent compared with 1.6 percent for men.

Suggested Citation:"UNEMPLOYMENT RATES." National Research Council. 1998. Doctoral Scientists and Engineers in the United States: 1995 Profile. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9524.
×
This page in the original is blank.
Suggested Citation:"UNEMPLOYMENT RATES." National Research Council. 1998. Doctoral Scientists and Engineers in the United States: 1995 Profile. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9524.
×
Page 8
Suggested Citation:"UNEMPLOYMENT RATES." National Research Council. 1998. Doctoral Scientists and Engineers in the United States: 1995 Profile. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9524.
×
Page 9
Suggested Citation:"UNEMPLOYMENT RATES." National Research Council. 1998. Doctoral Scientists and Engineers in the United States: 1995 Profile. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9524.
×
Page 10
Next: EMPLOYMENT SECTOR »
Doctoral Scientists and Engineers in the United States: 1995 Profile Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF
  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    Switch between the Original Pages, where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  9. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!