The Swedish Higher Education Authority is tasked with monitoring and reporting on graduates’ establishment in the labour market. In December 2024, we published a report focusing on those who earned a doctoral degree at a Swedish HEI during the period 2013–2020. The report is now available in English.

The analysis shows that most doctoral graduates have a strong position in the labour market. Among those who graduated between 2013 and 2018, 84 percent were established in the labour market three years after graduation. To be considered "established" in the labour market, an individual must have been employed in November of the follow-up year, earned a certain amount of income from work, and did not experienced any period of unemployment during the year. This metric is relatively strict and indicates strong labour market integration.

This rate of establishment does not differ significantly between women and men. There are however differences in rates of establishment across research fields. Doctoral programmes in medical and health sciences, engineering and technology, and social sciences lead to particularly high rates of establishment. The establishment rate is somewhat lower for doctoral graduates in the humanities and arts as well as natural sciences.

Read the report Doctoral graduates' establishment in the labour market. Pdf, 1 MB.