**47% of Those Under 30 with Doctorates in 2024 are ‘Unemployed’**
**Highest Rate Since 2014**
Last year, nearly half of young individuals under 30 who received a doctoral degree were unable to find employment. This is attributed to an inadequate supply of quality jobs in the labor market.
According to the National Statistical Portal on the 2nd, the “2024 Survey of New Doctoral Degree Holders” revealed that out of 10,442 respondents, the rate of those currently employed or with confirmed employment stood at 70.4%. The unemployed constituted 26.6%, while 3.0% were categorized as economically inactive.
The unemployment rate among doctorate holders reached its highest since the survey began in 2014. The rate started at 24.5% in 2014, remained in the mid-20% range until 2018, rose to 29.3% in 2019, and reached a record high last year. Particularly, the employment situation for “young doctors” was worse. Of the respondents under 30 who earned a doctorate last year (537 individuals), 47.7% were unemployed, the highest since the survey began. Of those, 45.1% were actively seeking jobs but were unable to find one, and 2.6% were not job hunting and were considered economically inactive. This implies nearly half of young doctors are jobless.
Gender-wise, the rate of unemployed female doctors was higher than that of males. Among male doctors (6,288 individuals), 27.4% were unemployed, compared to 33.1% of female doctors (4,154 individuals). By major, the unemployment rate was highest in arts and humanities at 40.1%, followed by natural sciences, mathematics, and statistics at 37.7%, and social sciences, media, and information studies at 33.1%. In contrast, the rates were relatively low in fields like health and welfare (20.9%), education (21.7%), and business, administration, and law (23.9%).