The National Science Foundation recently released its annual data on research doctoral degree recipients in the United States. Data for the annual Survey of Earned Doctorates shows that African American were awarded 2,725 doctorates from universities in the United States in 2023. The data also shows the employment plans of students after they received their doctoral degrees.
In 2023, 71.1 percent of the 2,725 African Americans, who earned doctoral degrees had firm commitments of employment by the time they received their degree. This was just slightly lower than the percentage of White doctoral degree recipients who had firm job offers by the time they received their doctoral degree. Of the Black doctoral recipients who had obtained commitment, 75.3 percent had received employment offers and 24.7 percent had received postdoctoral research positions.
For 2023 doctoral recipients who had a job offer, 39 percent of African Americans had accepted positions in the academic arena. In 2003, 54 percent of African Americans who earned doctorates had secured an academic appointment by the time they were awarded their doctoral degree. For White doctoral recipients in 2023 who had job offers, an almost identical percentage were heading to academia. In 2003, more than 55 percent of Whites with job offers at the time they earned their doctorate were headed to academia.
Of African Americas who had firm employment commitments by the time they received their doctorate in 2023, 25.3 had jobs in the corporate world compared to 36.1 percent of Whites who had job commitments by the time they were awarded their doctorate. It appears that for both Blacks and Whites, doctoral graduates are becoming increasingly more likely to take high-paying jobs in the private sector rather that staying in the academic world.
Roughly 12 percent of Blacks and 9 percent of Whites who earned doctorates were heading to jobs in government or the public sector. More than 11 percent of the Blacks who had secured a position by the time they earned their doctorate in 2023 had secured a position in the nonprofit sector. About 7.6 percent of White doctoral recipients secured jobs in the nonprofit sector.
