Rather than quoting a 1996 survey perhaps it would be more useful to quote the 2010 ASCP job market survey:
http://www.ascp.org/MainMenu/residents/2010-Fellowship-Job-Market-Surveys.aspx
For what it's worth everyone from my program (mid-tier east coast training program) has found a job in the past few years so the job market can't be all that bad.
Here is an article with some commentary.
CHICAGO, Ill. -- The following information was released by the American Society for Clinical Pathology:
More than half of post-graduate year three and four pathology resident respondents to the American Society for Clinical Pathology's (ASCP) Resident Council survey stated that they were interested in fellowships for the purpose of their long-term career interests. The remaining respondents indicated that fellowships were important to secure employment (35%) and because previously desired jobs were not available after their residencies (4%).
The annual Fellowship and Job Market Surveys are directed by ASCP each year in order to track trends on fellowships and the overall job market for pathologists-in-training, including residents and fellows. The surveys are conducted as part of the Resident In-Service Exam (RISE), the Fellow Forensic In-Service Exam (FISE), the Fellow In-Service Hematopathology Exam (FISHE), and the Fellow Transfusion Medicine In-Service Exam (TMISE). A total of 2,791 individuals in various levels of training participated in the in-service exams.
Key findings in the survey: The majority of residents (53%) had received one fellowship offer and 20% had received two. Ten percent had received no offers at the time of the survey, indicating that fellowship opportunities are still tight.
Since fellowship experience is seen as an important step in a pathologist's career, very few opt to go straight from a residency into the job market. Of those residents who formally applied to a job (93), 43% had received one job offer and 31% had received none. Accounting for about one-third of all accepted positions in the job market are those who receive an offer from and choose to stay as an attending at their training program.
Residents showed no major preference for a specific job type, with the percentages fairly evenly split among academic, community, no preference and other; the latter includes governmental, military and corporate (excluding reference laboratory) entities.
Jessica Kozel, MD, a third year resident at University of Missouri Healthcare in Columbia, Mo., and chair-elect of the ASCP Resident Council, rated the survey as a useful tool for residents, fellows and program directors.
"This survey's numbers provide realistic data about the opportunities that are available for those seeking fellowships and for fellows looking to get into the job market," Kozel said. "You are able to look at this information and see which areas are most competitive and what residents and fellows are really thinking."
Kozel also noted the results of survey questions related to a pathology fellowship match: Fifty-three percent of senior residents would prefer not to participate in a matching system. A matching system would allow residents to list fellowship opportunity in order of preference and then be matched up to the institutions based on those results.
A key component of the job search is salary. During the process of interviewing, residents reported that about one-quarter of all prospective employers did not disclose a starting annual salary (occurring twice as often for academic versus community practices). The majority of academic practices that did detail starting salaries offered less than $100,000 per year, whereas about 75 % of starting salaries in community practices were greater than $150,000.
The majority of those applying for pathology jobs after completing their fellowships took from one to six months to find a job. The ASCP survey broke the numbers down by specialty-forensic, hematopathology and transfusion medicine. Across the board, the majority did not plan on doing an additional fellowship in another subspecialty other than their current fellowships.
The survey also revealed that the starting salary numbers among these three subspecialties were disparate. Two-thirds of forensic fellows started at salaries less than $150,000 while an equal amount of transfusion medicine fellows began with salaries in the $150,000-$250,000 range. Nearly 80% of hematopathologists had starting salaries in the $150,000-$250,000 range. Fewer than half of forensic fellows received a sign-on bonus or moving expenses, whereas three-fourths of hematopathology and transfusion medicine fellows received at least one or the other.
Click here to see the entire survey.
Founded in 1922, ASCP is a professional society with 130,000 member pathologists, pathologists' assistants, residents, laboratory professionals and students. Based in Chicago, the ASCP provides excellence in education, certification, and advocacy on behalf of patients, pathologists, and laboratory professionals. Visit ASCP's Web site at
www.ascp.org.