Graduate-degree holders have higher pay and lower unemployment than bachelor's-degree holders.
US graduate-degree holders aged 30–54 with a background in life or physical sciences had an unemployment rate of 2.1% and a median salary of US$90,000 in 2010–11, according to an analysis of census data. Hard Times 2013: College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings, released on 29 May by Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce in Washington DC, found that life- or physical-science graduates in the same age range with only a bachelor's degree had 4.8% unemployment and a median salary of $60,000. With research jobs scarce, many science-graduate-degree holders work in secondary education, or in non-research posts in industries such as pharmaceuticals or aerospace, notes co-author Anthony Carnevale, the centre's director.
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On the job. Nature 498, 263 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7453-263a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7453-263a