Perceptions of the job market

After declining between 1989 and 1993, the percent of new psychology doctorates who indicated that the job market was excellent increased in 1999. This continued a turnabout first noted in 1997.

The proportion of new psychology doctorates who responded that they perceived the job market to be excellent had fallen from almost 12 percent in 1989 to 3 percent by 1995. Two years later it had climbed to just under 9 percent. By 1999, the proportion reporting an "excellent" outlook had edged back up to 11 percent.

Concurrently, the proportion of psychology doctorates reporting a bleak perception of the job market increased between 1989 and 1995 from 2 percent to almost 10 percent, then dropped in 1997 to less than 6 percent, and in 1999 dropped again to 4 percent.

There was variation by type of employment position at the high end of the scale, with graduates working in the human services sector less apt to report a positive perception of the job market. Indeed, 46 percent of those employed in the human services reported a good or excellent perception of the job market in 1999 compared with 55 percent of those in other positions (research, education and administration), a 9 percent difference. There was only a 5 percent difference in the proportions of the two groups reporting a negative perception (human services was higher) and a 5 percent difference in reports of a fair perception (again, human services was higher).

Overall, our data on psychology doctorates indicate that the new doctorates in the human services positions are less apt to report positive perceptions of the job market than is the case for graduates in the other positions.

--JESSICA KOHOUT, PHD and MARLENE WICHERSKI
APA RESEARCH OFFICE