Occupational profile and work tasks of Canadian PhDs: Gender and field of study differences

Most PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) graduates from Canadian universities work outside academia, but little is known about the nature of these jobs. Based on the 2016 Census, this study explores the nature of the occupations held by doctoral graduates who worked outside academia and the nature of the tasks they performed in these jobs. Outside academia, most men and women with doctorate degrees worked in various professional occupations, while a small share worked in managerial positions, and a smaller share still (around 10% on average) worked in jobs that typically do not require a university degree. Canadians with PhDs who worked outside academia generally held jobs in which analytical tasks were less important than those of university professors. In more than half of the broad fields of study examined, there were essentially no differences in the job task content between men and women, while in the remaining fields, differences were for the most part small. Compared with master’s degree graduates, doctoral graduates outside academia worked in jobs with higher importance scores for non-routine cognitive analytical tasks. Differences in the remaining tasks were generally small and varied in magnitude and direction across fields of study.