A report by Dr Warren Smart, "Do people with doctoral degrees get jobs in New Zealand post study?" has recently been published by the Ministry of Education, analysing the employment of a cohort of doctoral graduates who finshed their PhDs in 2003.

The report is an interestiing snapshot of how people fared after graduating. Across all doctoral graduates, around 65 percent were employed in New Zealand four years after they last studied. This was a lower rate of employment in New Zealand than bachelors and masters graduates from the same leaving year. The domestic employment rate of the New Zealand doctoral cohort was lower than in similar leaving cohorts in Canada and the United Kingdom

Younger graduates and Asians were less likely to be employed in New Zealand four years after they last studied. The report assumes that this pattern represents mobility, and that these groups are more likely to find opportunity overseas.  

Of concern to NZAS is that, by field of study, graduates in ‘Natural and physical sciences’ were the least likely to be in employment in New Zealand four years after they last studied (with a New Zealand-based employment rate of 57 percent). The report suggests that this may reflect the limited employment opportunities for science researchers in New Zealand.

The full report is available from the Ministry of Education's website