Table 2. A “snapshot” of the biomedical workforce from 2009.

	Number
Biomedical PhD students
Total number	83,000
Number who started PhDs	16,000
Number awarded PhDs	9,000
Number who started postdoc	5,800
Average time to PhD (years)	6–7
Post-PhD workforce		%
Scientific research	84,500	66
(Government research)	(7,000)	(6)
(Academic research or teaching)	(55,000)	(43)
(Industrial research)	(22,500)	(18)
Related to science (not research)	24,000	18
Unrelated to science	17,000	13
Unemployed	2,500	2
Total	128,000	100

This snapshot (data from Workforce report, p32) shows that 16,000 students started PhDs in 2009, but only 9,000 students received PhDs in 2009: this suggests a completion rate of just 56%. The table also shows that 66% of PhD graduates go on to pursue careers in research. This suggests that just over one-third (66% of 56% = 37%) of those students who start PhDs go on to become scientific researchers in government, academic or industrial laboratories. The Workforce report emphasizes that these data are only approximate; for instance, estimates of postdoc numbers vary between 37,000 and 68,000, and estimates for the number of PhD students vary between 83,000 (shown here) and 56,800 (Table 1). Overall, however, it is clear to me that too many students start PhDs and that, on average, most PhD training programmes are strikingly inefficient at producing PhDs.