[Scientists Are Disappearing]②After the PhD, Only One-Year Contracts Remain

PhD Graduates Now Double the Number of Available Positions
"After Five Years as a Postdoc, Survival Becomes the Issue"
A 25-Year Reversal in Supply and Demand
A 'Structural Quagmire' That Short-Term Policies Cannot Fix

Editor's NoteThe statement that "scientists are disappearing" may sound exaggerated. After all, the number of graduate students in science and engineering and investment in research and development (R&D) remain steady, at least on paper. However, at research sites, a very different reality is unfolding: unfilled graduate programs, prolonged postdoctoral researcher (postdoc) periods, and regional laboratories that have fallen silent. Through this series, The Asia Business Daily explores the question: "Why are scientists disappearing?" We seek to find solutions to how policies and the field itself must change in order for Korea to become a country where scientists can continue their research careers for the long term.

Even after earning a PhD, the path to becoming an independent researcher does not open easily. In reality, young researchers repeatedly take on one- to two-year contract research positions after obtaining their degrees. The pathway to stable research positions is narrowing, and the postdoctoral researcher period, once considered a "stepping stone" to a career in science, is increasingly becoming a "quagmire of survival," where one must worry about making a living.

The corridors of local university research buildings, once bustling with graduate students and researchers. Although the supply of PhD-level personnel is increasing, stable research jobs are decreasing, leading to growing anxiety among young researchers. Photo by Kim Jonghwa

Over 25 Years, the Supply and Demand Curves Have Gradually Reversed

The number of PhD-level personnel itself continues to increase. According to the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI), the number of science and engineering PhD students grew from 33,018 in 2021 to 37,526 in 2025. However, the number of regular research positions available for these graduates has remained stagnant.

The true extent of this supply-demand imbalance becomes even clearer through "time series analysis" that tracks changes over time. Laying out decades of data and following its trajectory reveals the "pattern" of how the backbone of Korea’s scientific community has become distorted.

Park Kibum, Senior Research Fellow at the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI), explained that, according to data analysis, the increase in R&D jobs needed during 1991–1995 (17,443 positions) was 2.6 times higher than the number of actual science and engineering PhD graduates (6,716). However, beginning in 1996, the increase in PhD-level jobs started to gradually fall below the number of new graduates. By 2016–2020, a complete reversal had occurred, with the number of PhD graduates about twice the scale of new job openings.

It is important to note that this reversal did not happen all at once, but was the result of a slow accumulation over the past 25 years. The supply and demand curves gradually diverged over a quarter century, cementing structural flaws. This means that today’s crisis is so deep-rooted that it cannot be easily reversed with short-term policies or temporary budget injections.

"The 4th–5th Year of Postdoc: The Critical Point for Leaving Research"

Field researchers identify the "4th to 5th year of postdoctoral work" as the most perilous period. Kim Chugang, Director of Career Development at the National Institute for Science and Technology Human Resources Development (KIRD), analyzed this period as one in which "employment anxiety peaks due to repeated short-term contracts, while life-cycle costs such as marriage and childbirth also surge," adding that "involuntary departure from research tends to cluster at this stage."

When the postdoc period becomes prolonged without a transition to an independent research position, it signals that academia is unable to absorb enough talent, and becomes a decisive factor causing young researchers to abandon research continuity.

In fact, the proportion of "highly educated unemployed" who fail to secure research positions is rising. According to Statistics Korea’s 2024 survey of new domestic PhD recipients, 29.6% were unemployed. This figure has steadily increased over the last decade, up from 24.5% in 2014.

Is Migration to Industry an Opportunity or a Crisis? ... The 'Hollowing Out of Basic Science'

Recently, companies in the artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductor, and biotech sectors have been absorbing more PhD-level talent than in the past. However, it is difficult to view this trend as entirely positive. While the migration of PhD talent to companies may strengthen industrial competitiveness, it leaves academia with a deepening imbalance.

As corporate research and development fields expand, universities and government-funded research institutes—which are responsible for pioneering foundational technologies—are facing growing difficulties in securing talent for basic research. With investment and jobs increasingly concentrated in industry, there is a growing risk of the "hollowing out of basic science," where the academic research ecosystem is relatively diminished.

Director Kim cited the "K-Award," a career development grant program in the biomedical field at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), as an example Korea could refer to. Of course, this is a program limited to a specific applied science field—biomedicine—but its provision of long-term research funding and career development as a package to help early-career researchers establish themselves as independent scientists offers significant implications. Korea also needs a safety net that supports the entire career lifecycle of researchers, moving beyond simple performance-based evaluation.

The government is also aware of these structural limitations. Lee Junbae, Director-General of Future Talent Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, "We need to establish a robust support system that allows researchers to focus solely on their research and grow according to their life cycle," and "We will concentrate policy efforts on creating a career structure that enables young researchers to grow in the long term, without being trapped in short-term contracts."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.