Elevator Pitch

• The economics PhD job market in the U.S. has collapsed, with a sharp decline in available positions and worsening odds for graduates seeking academic or elite non-academic employment.

Key Takeaways

• Job postings for economics PhDs have dropped over 30% in three years, with tenure-track openings falling even more sharply; only about 7% of new U.S. PhDs now secure tenure-track jobs.
• Demand for these positions continues to rise as more graduates enter the market, intensifying competition with international candidates and prior cohorts.
• Structural causes include declining undergraduate enrollment, demographic shifts, automation/AI, and loss of public trust due to perceived professional missteps.

Most Memorable Aspects

• Even top government and tech jobs are drying up, leaving banking/finance as the only relatively stable sector, which mostly favors non-PhDs.
• The profession's unique, centralized job market makes the scale of the collapse measurable and stark.
• The prognosis is so poor that many suggest PhD programs should dramatically reduce admissions or that graduates should prepare for non-academic careers—or alternative platforms like Substack.

Direct Quotes

• "An economics PhD is no longer an investment. It is a gamble with terrible odds."
• "You now have 1,385 brand-new PhDs chasing just 400 tenure-track jobs."
• "The only real fix would be radical: every PhD program would have to coordinate and act like a cartel to slash admissions to dramatically reduce supply."