EMPLOYMENT PROSPECTS FOR PH.D. SOCIOLOGISTS DURING THE SEVENTIES.

Perhaps these are not the worst of times, but surely they are not the best of times for science in the United States. If the years following the second world war emerged into a period of ebullient health for American science, sometime around 1965 illness set in. There is nearly universal agreement about the diagnosis: sharp reductions in the federal budget for scientific research and development with attendant cutbacks in activity, especially in basic research, much of which is done on the nation's campuses. Expert opinions vary concerning the fiscal prognosis, but most are rather glum about, say, the next four years. The fraction of the federal budget obligated to research and development reached an alltime high of 12.6 percent in 1965 since which it has skidded to an estimated 7.1 percent in 1972. What is widely regarded to be a serious side effect has emerged recently: a growing imbalance between available supply of and demand for scientists, the severity of this imbalance varies among disciplines and for different academic degree levels.