Employment Trends Among Public Health Doctoral Recipients, 2003–2015

摘要

Objectives. To examine postgraduation employment trends among graduates of doctoral programs in public health from 2003 to 2015. Methods. We analyzed pooled cross-sectional data from a census of graduates receiving a research doctorate from US accredited institutions. The outcome of interest was employment status. Covariates included public health discipline, sociodemographic characteristics, and institutional attributes. Results. Of 11?771 graduates, nearly two thirds secured employment in either academic (34.8%) or nonacademic (31.4%) settings at the time of graduation. The proportion of those still seeking employment increased over time. Individuals who were White, younger, trained in either biostatistics or epidemiology, or from an institution with the highest level of research intensity were significantly more likely to secure employment. Academic employment was the most common setting for all 5 public health disciplines, but we observed differences in employment patterns (e.g., government, nonprofit, for-profit) across disciplines. Conclusions. Certain characteristics among public health doctoral recipients are correlated with postgraduation employment. More research is needed, but the observed increase in individuals still seeking employment may be attributable to increases in general public health graduates from for-profit institutions. Increases in health care expenditures, 1,2 population size, 2 and the prevalence of chronic diseases 3,4 have galvanized a new focus on population health in both the US health delivery system 5,6 and society at large. 7 Public health research emphasizes a population-based approach to long-term health promotion 8 and the protection of people in their daily environments, 9 complementing the traditional biomedical and clinical approach. 10 As such, the number of individuals receiving doctoral degrees in public health has increased, 11 and the demand for such individuals in academia, hospitals, government agencies, and other settings appears to be growing. 12,13 Doctoral-prepared public health professionals have historically been employed in both academic and nonacademic settings. 14,15 The broader literature has examined nonacademic employment opportunities for PhD graduates, but much of the literature focuses on doctoral recipients in the social sciences, 16 liberal arts, 17 or engineering. 18 Other studies have examined nonacademic employment trends for doctoral graduates of clinical disciplines, 19,20 such as nursing, 19 medicine, 20 life sciences, 21 or biomedical science and technology. 22 Separately, the literature has also explored the impact of student values and preferences, 18,23,24 academic mentorship, 25 industry incentives and benefits, 26,27 the demands of academia, 28 and the availability of academic positions 29 vis-a-vis nonacademic employment trends. Given the presumed increased demand for, and production of, public health doctoral recipients, surprisingly little is known about trends in employment prospects for recent doctoral graduates trained in the core knowledge areas of public health. In this study, we evaluated employment trends among those earning research doctorates in biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health sciences, health services administration, and other public health disciplines (social and behavioral sciences only available in 2014 and 2015 because of data set limitations). 30 We utilized data from the restricted-use files of the National Science Foundation’s Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED), 31 which is collected annually from all doctoral recipients from US institutions of higher education. We were interested in the proportions of individuals who gain employment at or around the time of graduation, the settings in which these individuals gain employment, and how these trends may differ by core public health knowledge area and over time. Lastly, we were interested in the characteristics of individuals and their programs that correlate with job placements in various settings. We believe this work will be of interest to current and future doctoral students, schools and programs of public health, administrators of doctoral programs, and employers seeking research expertise from individuals trained in public health.