Table 4-2. Involuntarily out-of-field rate among U.S. residing doctoral scientists and engineers, by fine field of doctorate: 2017
| Field of study |
Involuntarily out-of-field rate |
| Percent |
SE |
| All fields |
3.1 |
0.15 |
| Science |
3.2 |
0.15 |
| Biological, agricultural, and environmental life sciences |
3.3 |
0.20 |
| Agricultural and food sciences |
3.1 |
0.55 |
| Agricultural sciences |
* |
* |
| Animal sciences |
2.6 |
0.85 |
| Food sciences and technology |
1.2 |
0.50 |
| Plant sciences |
4.1 |
1.25 |
| Soil sciences |
5.1 |
1.80 |
| Biochemistry and biophysics |
4.1 |
0.70 |
| Biochemistry |
4.2 |
0.75 |
| Biophysics |
3.6 |
1.25 |
| Cell, cellular biology, and molecular biology |
3.2 |
0.50 |
| Microbiological sciences and immunology |
1.6 |
0.45 |
| Immunology |
1.2 |
0.55 |
| Microbiological sciences |
1.9 |
0.60 |
| Natural resources and conservation |
3.1 |
0.50 |
| Fish, fisheries, wildlife and wildlands science and management |
1.5 |
0.75 |
| Forestry |
3.6 |
0.70 |
| Natural resource conservation, research, management, and policy |
3.8 |
1.00 |
| Zoology |
5.0 |
1.25 |
| Other biological sciences |
3.4 |
0.30 |
| Biomathematics, bioinformatics, and computational biology |
1.5 |
0.50 |
| Botany and plant biology |
5.8 |
1.15 |
| Epidemiology, ecology, and population biology |
2.1 |
0.65 |
| Genetics |
3.8 |
1.05 |
| Neurobiology and neuroscience |
3.7 |
0.75 |
| Nutrition sciences |
2.7 |
1.00 |
| Pharmacology and toxicology |
4.4 |
0.95 |
| Physiology, pathology, and related sciences |
3.4 |
0.65 |
| Biological and biomedical sciences, general |
2.8 |
0.75 |
| Biological and biomedical sciences, other |
2.8 |
0.80 |
| Computer and information sciences |
1.6 |
0.45 |
| Computer science |
1.6 |
0.50 |
| Information science, studies |
D |
D |
| Computer and information sciences, other |
* |
* |
| Mathematics and statistics |
3.8 |
0.60 |
| Applied mathematics |
6.0 |
1.65 |
| Mathematics |
4.4 |
0.80 |
| Statistics |
D |
D |
| Mathematics and statistics, other |
2.9 |
1.30 |
| Physical sciences, geosciences, atmospheric, and ocean sciences |
5.6 |
0.35 |
| Astronomy and astrophysics |
5.1 |
1.55 |
| Chemistry, except biochemistry |
5.5 |
0.45 |
| Inorganic chemistry |
5.2 |
1.10 |
| Organic chemistry |
3.5 |
0.70 |
| Chemistry, other, except biochemistry |
6.5 |
0.65 |
| Geosciences, atmospheric, and ocean sciences |
3.5 |
0.45 |
| Atmospheric sciences and meteorology |
3.3 |
0.80 |
| Geological and earth sciences, geosciences |
3.6 |
0.60 |
| Ocean sciences and marine sciences |
3.7 |
0.85 |
| Oceanography, chemical and physical |
3.0 |
1.45 |
| Physics |
6.9 |
0.75 |
| Psychology |
1.1 |
0.15 |
| Clinical psychology |
D |
D |
| Counseling and applied psychology |
1.4 |
0.45 |
| Educational and school psychology |
1.5 |
0.60 |
| Industrial and organizational psychology |
1.6 |
0.55 |
| Research and experimental psychology |
1.7 |
0.35 |
| Psychology, general |
D |
D |
| Psychology, other |
3.5 |
1.15 |
| Social sciences |
2.7 |
0.25 |
| Economics |
1.4 |
0.35 |
| Political science and government |
2.4 |
0.70 |
| Political science and government |
2.3 |
0.80 |
| Public policy analysis |
3.0 |
1.35 |
| Sociology, demography, and population studies |
1.7 |
0.50 |
| Other social sciences |
4.1 |
0.50 |
| Anthropology |
4.4 |
0.95 |
| Area, ethnic, cultural, gender, and group studies |
4.3 |
1.00 |
| Geography and cartography |
2.4 |
1.05 |
| International relations and national security studies |
S |
S |
| Linguistics |
6.6 |
1.55 |
| Urban studies, affairs |
D |
D |
| Social sciences, other |
3.1 |
0.70 |
| Engineering |
3.2 |
0.20 |
| Aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering |
6.3 |
1.65 |
| Chemical engineering |
4.5 |
0.95 |
| Civil engineering |
2.1 |
0.50 |
| Electrical and computer engineering |
2.5 |
0.45 |
| Computer engineering |
3.0 |
1.10 |
| Electrical, electronics, and communications engineering |
2.4 |
0.50 |
| Mechanical engineering |
2.5 |
0.60 |
| Metallurgical and materials engineering |
3.9 |
0.75 |
| Other engineering |
3.3 |
0.45 |
| Agricultural engineering |
2.2 |
1.10 |
| Bioengineering and biomedical engineering |
3.6 |
0.95 |
| Engineering mechanics, physics, and science |
2.5 |
0.65 |
| Industrial and manufacturing engineering |
4.1 |
1.10 |
| Nuclear engineering |
2.5 |
1.00 |
| Engineering, other |
2.8 |
0.90 |
| Health |
1.4 |
0.30 |
| Communication disorders sciences and services |
D |
D |
| Hospital and medical administration services |
D |
D |
| Pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences, and administration |
2.4 |
0.90 |
| Public health |
1.6 |
0.70 |
| Registered nursing, nursing administration, nursing research |
D |
D |
| Health sciences, other |
0.9 |
0.30 |
