39 change in occupational integration for PhD graduates over the last 10 years

The number of PhD awarded in France between 1982 and 2010 increased from 7,000 to 13,000. Between 2001 and 2010, the professional future at three years of these graduates underwent two major changes: stagnation of the unemployment rate at three years at around 10% and a huge increase in short-term contracts in public research.

The unemployment rate among PhD graduates after three years in the workforce rose from 7% in 2001 to 9% in 2013. However, whereas this rate was higher in 2001, 2004 and 2007 than for M2 leavers, the situation was reversed in favour of the PhD in 2010. The 2008 economic crisis had a more marked effect on the Bac + 5 leavers than the PhD holders.

This recent improvement in the situation of PhD holders conceals huge differences between fields of education and not all PhD holders have benefited from the seeming stagnation in the unemployment rate since 2010 (table 39.01). PhD graduates in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Earth and Life Sciences have not benefited from this upturn; in 2013, their unemployment rate at three years was 11% or more. Conversely, less than 9% of PhD graduates in Law, Economics and Management, Arts and Human and Social Sciences were unemployed in 2013. Engineering and Computer Sciences PhD graduates enjoyed an even more favourable situation, with an unemployment rate well below the others throughout the period in question.

Opportunities for PhD graduates in employment after three years in the workforce are stable over the entire period in question (chart 39.02). Regardless of the survey year, nearly half of employed PhD graduates work in public research. Only 40% of PhD graduates work in the private sector. In both 2001 and 2013, over half of PhD graduates employed in the private sector have engineering or computer science backgrounds. Although the structure of opportunities has not changed through the various Generations, certain transformations deserve to be highlighted. In 2001, only 21% of employed PhD graduates from Law, Economics and Management were working in the private sector, but this proportion rose to 32% in 2013. In addition, during these ten years of Generation survey, employment conditions have changed significantly, with a clear increase in short-term contracts, especially in public research (chart 39.03). Thus, in 2013, nearly one PhD graduate in two employed in the public sector held a short-term contract after three years in the workforce, compared with one in five in 2001. This trend is in line with changes in the employment structure of higher education teachers where the proportion of temporary jobs has increased considerably over those of lecturers or professors.

The increase in non-stable employment in academic research affects the PhD graduates differently depending on the fields of education (table 39.04). PhD graduates in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Earth and Life Sciences have been affected especially by the increase in short-term contracts in the public sector. Between 2001 and 2013, the proportion of short-term contracts in public research rose from 24% to 45% for Mathematics and Physics graduates, 26% to 54% for Chemistry graduates and 37% to 75% for Earth and Life Sciences graduates. This rise is far less for the other PhD graduates. For Economics and Management graduates, the increase in the proportion of short-term contracts in public research jobs rose from 5% to 12% between 2001 and 2013.

Julien Calmand