The Academic Job Market - How bad is it really?
Are you considering a career in academia? Then it’s essential for you to understand the sort of job market you will be entering into. In today’s blog, we’ll be looking at the current academic job market and what you need to be aware of.
If you’re doing a research degree, there’s a good chance you are considering a career in academia. And why wouldn’t you? If you love research, academia can look like the best career you can have. You’re not alone either; the vast majority of PhD and early career researchers (ECRS) want to work in academia. But before you decide on this as your one-and-only only career path, it’s worth looking at the academic job market to see what your chances of success actually are.
So what does the current academic job market look like? The TL;DR version: it’s bleak, or if you prefer: terrible, nightmarish, catastrophic, among many other not-at-all-encouraging descriptors.
The academic job market in Australia (and internationally) has been becoming increasingly competitive. With more and more PhD graduates competing for positions (there were twice as many PhD graduates in 2019 than in 2000) the chances of landing a permanent academic position are slim. This has been further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic; a combination of the loss of international students, workplace disruptions due to public health measures and the exclusion of the tertiary education sector from the government’s JobKeeper support has resulted in the loss of over 40,000 jobs (almost 1 in 5) in the tertiary education sector.
So as a PhD graduate, what are your chances of getting a permanent academic job? It depends on a few things, such as your country/region or field of study, but various sources estimate it as below 5%. In many cases, that’s just a permanent position – chances of becoming a professor are even lower. The following figure is data from the UK and (although a bit out of date now) it is a great visual representation of the likelihood of progressing through the academic career path for STEM PhD graduates.
“Although most ECRs wanted to stay in academia, the majority were intending to leave, with the most cited reason being the lack of job security.”
This bottleneck that researchers face, particularly when transitioning from ECR to permanent positions, has a damaging effect on job satisfaction. A recent study of ECRs in Australia found that, although most wanted to stay in academia, the majority were intending to leave, with the most cited reason being the lack of job security.
This may seem demoralizing – if I can’t get an academic job, why I am I even doing a research degree? But look at it another way: most PhD graduates find jobs outside of academia, and many of these will be exciting and interesting jobs in a range of industries and organisations. I prefer to view this not as an example of the limited options in academia (although it absolutely is), but as evidence of the many more options available for those pursuing non-academic careers.
If your dream is academia, don’t let the terrible job market discourage you completely. You should still strive for your goal, but be aware that success rates are low, know what you need to achieve to stand out in a competitive market, and be aware of the challenges you face and sacrifices you might need to make to be successful. If this all seems overwhelming, don’t despair – there are plenty of equally (and even more) interesting, challenging and meaningful careers outside of academia.
