Do the fixed-term contracts in academia lead to a brain drain? A significant, perhaps growing proportion of research at universities is carried out by postdocs¹.  Postdocs are typically employed on fixed-term contracts.  Personally, I know several people who have been employed on chains of temporary research contracts for well over ten years, including some all the way to retirement: their work is good enough to satisfy their PI, but not good enough (or perhaps not interested) for promotion.  Some may seek to move to industry, not because the work is more interesting but because a permanent contract is easier to get, such as suggested in this Dutch-language article), but a response in the same article denies that there is a brain drain.

Is there any evidence for a brain drain from academia to industry, lured by permanent² contracts?

NB: although personal stories/anecdotes are interesting (I could offer my own) it would be even more interesting to see if there is actual research into this question.



Edit: I welcome answers that challenge the assumption that job security as a researcher is more easily achievable outside academia than inside.  Some PhDs do of course become professors, but I've rarely seen professors that have much time to do research, as opposed to supervise research.  My question supposes the perspective of people who wish to do research themselves rather than in a supervisory role.



¹I use postdoc here in the meaning of any time-limited contract which is mainly or entirely focussed on research.

²Of course, no job is certain until retirement, but getting a mortgage without a permanent contract is likely hard/impossible.
I can only provide anecdotal data, I was going to  do this as a comment, but it got too big. 

I'm a postdoc (finished my phd in 2012), and I'm tired of it. In some cases (fapesp, brazil) postdocs don't have any rights or benefits (no vacations, for instance). 

Worrying about how I'll provide for my family from next August, when my contract ends, compromises my performance... More than that, I don't have continuity, I can't think of anything medium term, because I have no idea where I'll be in one year. 

I really like the projects I'm working on. But this whole thing has taken its toll on my and on my family. I'm seriously considering changing careers to get some kind of stability. I'd like to stay on research, but maybe research doesn't want to stay with me :)

update: I do not have kids, it is just me and my wife. We are postponing that exactly because I don't want to subject a kid to this. And its easier to move around when its only the two of us. If I'm honest, I don't know of any other non-religious profession that requires this kind of commitment. Maybe the military, but at least you got benefits, sometimes housing. And financial stability, if not geographical.