Via Science's Katie Langin, this news from NSF's Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering:
New data released by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) reveal a sharp drop in the number of U.S. citizens working as postdocs, especially in the biological and biomedical sciences. The trend underscores concerns that the academic community is facing a postdoc shortage and that early-career scientists are increasingly favoring higher paid positions outside academia.
“It’s an unfortunate situation if domestic researchers are turning down postdoctoral positions because they’re inferior to positions in government or in industry,” says Tom Kimbis, executive director and CEO of the National Postdoctoral Association. “It’s not a situation that’s good for the country.”
The data come from NSF’s Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering, which compiles employment data from academic institutions and estimates the number of STEM graduate students and postdocs across the country. According to the latest data release, 62,750 postdocs were employed at U.S. institutions in the fall of 2022, a 1% drop compared with the year before. But the trend diverges sharply by citizenship. From 2021 to 2022, the number of U.S. citizens and permanent residents working as postdocs dropped from 29,755 to 27,289. The 8% change is the largest year-to-year percentage-wise drop in the history of the survey, which has collected data since 1980. Meanwhile, the number of postdocs with temporary visas increased by 6%, from 33,573 to 35,461, about the same number as in 2020.
This is pretty interesting news. I'm genuinely interested to see if this trend continues, if it indeed is a trend. I'm generally skeptical of narratives that there is a "shortage" of postdocs. I think there is a perceived shortage of candidates from professors, or (another way to put it) the relative desirability of these postdocs has fallen. I have long asserted that postdocs are inferior goods, and this doesn't change my position.
NRC postdoc applications have also been on the decline. It has a lot of govt agencies worried since they've become dependent on the program for new hires/cheap(er) labor.
ReplyDeleteWhere did you find that? I've heard none of that here at NIST, but my group aggressively recruits applicants so we likely have a different perspective
DeleteI recommend you read GAO-23-105521. NRC applications to NIST have decreased 30% from 2015 to 2021. Overall, the NRC postdoc program has seen a 40% decline in the same period.
DeleteFigure 2 makes the comparison look flatter than that, but wow that's wild. We have had a pretty steady number in our group over that time period. But as I said, we aggressively pursue them. It is even that big of a deal though? Not like there's enough of an increase in base funding to hire any fraction of them. I'm on a term appointment and scrambling to find something to get me through my next round of faculty apps.
DeleteI see the latest postdoc salaries in my subfield and it's more than I make as an assistant professor. Academia in general needs a huge bump up across the board, this is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteThe average pay of male assistant profs in 2022 was 93K according to this https://data.aaup.org/ft-faculty-salary-equity-ratios/ That is well above median income in my state. When I was a postdoc in 15 years ago, I made well under the median income of my state. So I would be surprised if you as an assistant prof made less than a postdoc.
DeleteOne of the drawbacks of working for a poorly-funded state institution, and yes there's a sexism component because new male assistant profs at my institution make as much as I do after being tenure track for several years (even though my grants are 3x theirs). I'm making $20k below the average AAUP. Postdoc pay in my subfield starts at $70k (up from $40k 5 years ago) and there's several with the starting pay listed as more than my salary
DeleteAnon at april4 back again. Sorry to hear that. I did not check what the response rate of this survey was, perhaps it doesn't reflect the population of chem profs. I never responded to post gradschool surveys from my university because just getting their notice made me feel crappy and a failure compared with former classmates. I suspect that higher income earners respond to salary surveys more frequently.
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