Newly Minted PhDs in Economics Face Unwelcoming Job Market: Of Course, I Left My PhD in Humanities Off the Resume

Monitor postings on Reddit subunits focused on careers and it's no longer news that PhDs, both newly minted and those already in the labor market, generally are finding the credential an obstacle in the search for a job or even contract assignments. No, not an asset. 

Let's cut to the chase. The highly educated have to get smart about this, fast. With some exceptions, I advise those I coach to leave the PhD off job-search materials. The negative assumptions among those hiring range from that you expect too much money to you'll be a know-it-all. 

When my boutique collapsed post-9/11 and I had to land a survival job I lopped off everything but the BA. At the interview I dumbed-down my vocabulary. Sure Harvard was started in 1636 but America remains anti-intellectual. In addition, the integration of AI into strategy and operations makes knowledge work in general less and less marketable. 

That's the narrative of our times: Advanced degrees having low or no ROI. The result, as LinkedIn documents, is that more universities are shutting down PhD programs or significantly reducing the number admitted. No longer unthinkable is that PhD will no longer exist.

The story, still a shock to those who invested so much in earning that degree, makes for page views, likes, comments and reposts. So, it's predictable The Wall Street Journal would feature how recent graduates of PhD programs in economics are encountering severe headwinds in finding work. 

Driving the unmarketability of a PhD degree, this time around and in a field once in demand are:

"Worries about federal funding have led many major universities to reduce, or even freeze, hiring. Jobs within the federal government have dried up. The private sector, where demand for economists has been intense in recent years, has pulled back."

Since the degree entails several years of study - mine involved five, post-MA - the risk in embarking on that investment is that by time the dissertation or seminal research project is completed, the market will have changed. That had been the fate of The Lost Generation of Scholars in the early 1970s. In the late 1960s the US government predicted a shortage of university professors in the humanities. 

To fill that gap it provided NDEA Title IV fellowships for doctoral studies. Those covered tuition and provided a stipend for living expenses. Then, the academic market for most categories in the humanities soured. We, at one time the best and brightest, bounced around the non-academic labor market trying on fits. By accident, after three years, I built a career in executive communications. 

It puzzles many, including journalists covering unemployment/underemployment among PhDs, why some continue to start on that risky journey. 

My hunch: Since the GI opened higher education to the masses there has been blind trust in its being the platform for success. For those who haven't yet experienced otherwise - who isn't praised for academic accomplishments - the trust continues to hold up. 

That also applies to professional degrees in business and law. 

Hiring of MBAs from Harvard is off. Both law firms Paul, Weiss and Sullivan and Cromwell sketched out some of how life in the legal sector will implode. Because of AI, demand will plummet for junior lawyers. Also because of AI, many practices will devalue into commodities. Yes, postings on Reddit, Fishbowl and Glassdoor ask for strategies to get into graduate business and law schools.

In coaching/tarot readings I have become straight-off-the-shoulder: No polite positioning and packaging of what it takes to get, hold and move on to better work in 2026 and beyond. The world in which higher education was guaranteed to move the needle on success no longer exists. 

Success is a mental game. Failure comes from being done in by the “committee” in your head.

Together, we liberate your thinking. Then we change your story. And, unleash success.

Intuitive Coaching. Special expertise with transitions, becoming a solopreneur and aging. Psychic/tarot readings, upon request. Complimentary consultation with Jane Genova (Text 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com). Yes, test out the chemistry. Zero risk.

Don’t give up before the miracle.



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