The primary mission of the Center for Psychology Workforce Analysis and Research (CPWAR) is to collect, analyze, and disseminate information relevant to psychology’s labor force and educational system.

To do this, the Center conducts major periodic surveys examining the early labor market experiences of new doctorates in psychology, salaries of psychologists, and the characteristics of new degree recipients (degree level, fields, employment, debt, salaries, etc.) and of graduate departments (e.g., faculty salaries and student characteristics).

Staff are responsible for providing technical assistance on data collection strategies and research methodology to governance groups and Central Office units and for conducting other studies of the membership deemed important by the Association.

The Center has data on:

1. Salaries (academic and non-academic)
2. Students (enrollees, applicants, level of support, fields, demographics)
3. Faculty (rank, tenure status, salary, field, race/ethnicity, etc.)
4. Psychologists in the U.S. (employment settings and activities, sex, race/ethnicity, fields, etc.)
5. APA members (employment, sex, race/ethnicity, fields, division memberships, licensure, etc.)
6. New doctorates (employment, fields, postdoctoral experiences, debt, salaries, etc.)
7. Levels of education (undergraduate, master’s and doctoral)

The Center does not maintain data on actual job listings or employment opportunties. For these, please use the usual sources (e.g., newspapers, The APA Monitor, Chronicle of Higher Education, networks).

Surveys

Routinely, the CPWAR conducts several surveys. These are:

• Doctorate Employment Survey – mailed every two years to new doctorates in order to look at their employment situations. The report on 2004 graduates conducted in 2005 is available: 2005 Doctorate Employment Survey
• Biennial Salary Survey –sent to a random sample of members to collect current salary information for psychologists across a myriad of positions and settings. The preliminary data from the survey conducted in 2007 are currently available, as are previous editions from 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2003.
• Annual Faculty Salary Survey – mailed to chairs of doctoral and master’s departments that award a degree in psychology or related fields. The preliminary tables for the 2007-2008 Faculty Salaries in Graduate Departments of Psychology are available. Reports are available from 1989 through 2007.
• Annual Survey of Graduate Departments – mailed to chair of graduate departments that award a degree in psychology or related fields to collect data on student enrollment and support, departmental budget, faculty and more. Re-instituted electronically in 2001. Previous mailings in 1998-1999, and earlier.
• APA Directory data - the CPWAR codes and analyzes demographic information which is useful for describing the membership more thoroughly – since 1985.

Other Activities

• Construction of division profiles, based upon information from the most recent APA Directory. Many variations have been requested since 1985, profiling the characteristics of a variety of subsets of the membership. The major efforts have been 1985, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006. For the most current profiles of membership: 2006 APA Membership Profiles
• Consultation on design, construction, and implementation of research projects and methodology (e.g., 2000 APA/APPIC Survey of Intern Placement, 1999 Demand for Predoctoral Internships Survey).
• Selection of special samples of the APA membership for research projects outside APA and special mailings to targeted groups of members.
• Respond to verbal/written information requests.
• Liaison to the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology and the National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology, and attendance at other regional and national conferences as relevant. Staff support, assist with surveys efforts, provide special analyses of data, special sections on surveys, presentations and more.