Having examined the employment of new physics PhDs by sector and by type of position (postdoc, temporary, or potentially permanent), we now turn to the degree recipient’s subfield and their employment. Recall that almost half of the physics PhD recipients graduating from U.S. institutions who stayed in the U.S. accepted postdoctoral appointments. About 40% accepted a potentially permanent position and 8% took a temporary position that was not a postdoc.
As seen in the figure, most of those who accepted a postdoc were working in physics in the same subfield as their dissertation. While 75% (= 53% + 22%) of those who accepted some other temporary position were also in physics, almost 80% (≈ 53% + 25%) were working in a field outside their dissertation subfield. Finally, about one PhD recipient in three who accepted a potentially permanent position were working in physics, with about half of those in the...