In this week's Chemical and Engineering News, the annual academic R&D spending rankings are out. National Science Foundation data (at the moment) only goes to 2009, which is why that's the latest date above.
If you had asked me to describe how many more postdocs there would be in 1999 than 2009, I would have probably estimated that the number of postdocs had doubled. A ten percent increase is a lot less than I would have estimated.
Any guesses as to how many postdocs there would be in 2010 and 2011? I'm going to guess higher, but not not more than 3%.
Seriously ...?
ReplyDeleteWow.
I've never seen a post-doc position go unfilled. It's the funding that limits the number of positions.
ReplyDeleteChemistry post-doc positions may not have doubled over the last decade, but engineering positions sure did! Looking at science positions as a whole, there was an increase of over 30%. I would submit that post-docs in chemistry have historically been more common and are already at saturation levels.
ReplyDeleteActually, I would expect 2010 to show a significant gain thanks to the ARRA money fully kicking in vs. 2009. Most of the NIH/NSF funds didn't come available until late 2009. 2011 will probably be flat and given the likely trajectory of fed budgets from now on I would expect decreases thereafter.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't surprise me. Even if the 'need' for postdocs has doubled or tripled due to the economy, grants are limited.
ReplyDeleteMost Profs don't want to fork up the cash for help that might be uppity. Better to invest in 1.5 grad students with low mileage for the same money. You get 5-7 years to flog and debase a good grad student, and if they teach you don't have to pay them a dime.