Field Composition of Postdocs Shifts as Numbers Decline in Biological Sciences and in Clinical Medicine

The total number of postdocs in science, engineering, and health in U.S. academic institutions held steady at nearly 64,000 in 2015. While the majority of the postdocs still worked in biological sciences and in clinical medicine, the share of postdocs in these two fields has declined over the past five years. From 2010 to 2015, biological sciences ' share of postdocs fell from 34.2% to 30.2% while clinical medicine dropped from 26.0% to 24.8%. Data are from the 2015 Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering, conducted by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics within the National Science Foundation.
Source: NSF - Statistics on U.S. Science and Engineering Resources - Category: Statistics Source Type: news