Notes: Labor force is defined as those employed plus those unemployed and seeking work. The retirement rate is the proportion of the labor force who report they are retired.

* Figures for Sociology and Other Social Sciences for 1993 and 1995 are estimates. During these years, reported retirement counts combined Sociology and Anthropology. Disaggregated data for these fields are not available.

Summary:

The majority of the sociologists who are not in the labor market are retired. While the retirement rate for sociologists leveled-off in 2003, retirements among PhD sociologists have steadily increased over the last ten years by about 19 percent per year, the highest among these fields. Retirements, however, among PhDs of both political science and economics have grown faster in recent years than for sociologists.

Unemployment Rates for Doctorate Social and Behavioral Scientists, 1993 - 2006

Unemployment Rates for All Social and Behavioral Scientists, 2003 and 2006

Unemployment Rates in Science and Engineering by Degree Level, 2003 and 2006

Retirement Rates for Doctorate Social and Behavioral Scientists, 1993 - 2006

Involuntarily Out-of-Field Rates for Doctorate Social and Behavioral Scientists, 1993 - 2003

Replacement in the Social Sciences: Ratio of the Number of New PhDs Awarded per Each

Retirees in Selected Social Science and Behavioral Disciplines, 1993 - 2003

Source:

ASA computations based on data from the National Science Foundation, Science Resource Statistics, Characteristics of Doctoral Scientists and Engineers in the United States (Arlington, VA: NSF, 1996 - 2006). Retrieved from http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/pubseri.cfm?seri_id=13 (November 31, 2006).

Data: A tabular version of this data in Excel format is available here.