But after sending out 40 applications, Alexander still has not found a job, "even a job I don't want."

OCS figures on last year's Harvard Ph.D. report a steady decline in teaching appointments, although the number of degree holders in the humanities finding academic jobs rose slightly from a 1992 low.

No figures are yet available for the GSAS class of 1994, but among its members there is a widespread perception that a Ph.D. is far from a guarantee of future security.

"It's a very hard and demeaning process for most people," Newhouse says. "It's not uncommon that 400-500 people will apply for one job or that someone will only come across two listings in their field."

Nationwide, the numbers are bleak.

The Modern Language Association reports that the number of academic jobs listed in English and modern languages in 1993-94 dropped to the lowest point since the group began charting numbers in 1975.

And the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that a glut of academic jobs expected to surface in the 1990s has not materialized.

Why the Job Crunch?

There is no single explanation for the Ph.D. job crunch.

Of the students who conducted unsuccessful searches for positions outside academia, most attribute their failures to the recession and bad luck.

Within the academic, one problem is the oversupply of new Ph.D.s, the flood of which is growing all the time.

GSAS received its highest number of applications ever this year, the number topping 8,000.

"We're still attracting the best people world-wide regardless of their projected apportunities for employment," Wolff says.

Many students retreat into further education when the job market is sagging, the dean says.

"There's a national trend here--in the last five years the number of people applying to graduate schools has been dramatically increasing," Wolff says. "If people don't have a job they tend to feel like getting better educated is time well spent."