Why psychologists take part-time jobs
News on psychologists’ education and employment from APA’s Center for Workforce Studies
- In 2017, about 17% of the approximately 227,800 psychology doctorate or professional degree holders in the United States worked part time, or fewer than 35 hours per week in their primary jobs.1 Women were nearly twice as likely to work part time as men, with 21% of female psychologists doing so compared with 11% of male psychologists.
- When asked why they worked fewer than 35 hours per week, more than three times as many men as women cited retirement among their reasons (60% vs. 17%). In contrast, a higher percentage of women selected family (45% vs. 6%) and working multiple jobs (26% vs. 9%) as reasons for working part time.2
Want more information? See CWS’s interactive data tools: www.apa.org/workforce/data-tools/index or contact cws@apa.org.
1National Science Foundation (NSF), National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. (2017). National Survey of College Graduates Public Use Microdata File and Codebook. Retrieved from https://ncses.nsf.gov/explore-data/microdata/national-survey-college-graduatesopens in new window. Respondents were asked: "During a typical week on your principal job, how many hours did you work?" Those who responded "fewer than 35 hours" were then asked: "For which of the following reasons did you usually work fewer than 35 hours per week on the principal job you held during the week of February 1, 2017? Mark Yes or No for each item." The item on retirement referred to "previously retired or semi-retired" rather than full retirement. Professional degrees include PsyD. The use of NSF data does not imply NSF endorsement of the research, research methods or conclusions contained in this report.
2All comparisons were significant at p<.05.