The recession seems to have increased the proportion of US physics PhD holders who are taking postdoc jobs rather than waiting for permanent positions, says a brief released on 17 January by the American Institute of Physics (AIP) in College Park, Maryland. Physics PhDs: One Year Later, which is based on survey data, reports that 59% of people who earned physics PhDs in the United States in 2009 and 2010 and remained in the country took postdocs within a year. Of those, 13% did so because they could not find permanent work, compared with 7% from the classes of 2007 and 2008, according to AIP data. Similarly, 44% of physics PhD holders who took temporary positions had failed to find a suitable permanent job, up from 42% from the classes of 2007 and 2008.