Policy Report 2: Predictors of Unemployment of PhD Graduates in Social Sciences and Humanities

This policy report is part of the larger POCARIM Project (Mapping the Population Carriers, Mobilities and Impacts of Advanced Research Degree Graduates in Social Sciences and Humanities), funded under the 7th European Framework. The project sample consists of doctoral graduates in the social sciences and humanities who received their degrees between 2000 and 2012 in 13 countries (France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and the UK). The project aims to understand the SSH doctoral populations with a particular focus on their mobilities across disciplines, sectors and borders; to understand the impact, engagement and contribution of SSH research; and to identify employment trends of SSH PhD graduates.
Two important objectives of the POCARIM project are the assessment of the career paths and the impacts of PhD graduates who obtained their degrees in the social sciences or humanities. This report focuses on the former objective and aims to address unemployment of SSH PhD graduates to understand demographic as well as contextual factors leading to experience of periods of unemployment of SSH PhD graduates in different countries. Accordingly, some policy implications are discussed and recommendations are provided.