Hi,
I'm a journalist working on an article about PhD candidates who may be hesitant to finish their dissertations and enter the job market in its current state. Anyone have thoughts on this? I'd like to chat either on the phone or by email about your experiences. Thanks in advance.
Best,
Anna

This is predominantly a UK-based forum (with some Aussies) and I suspect from how you phrased your query that you are talking about the US system. From a UK perspective the academic job market is going to get worse not better given our government's decision to slash spending on higher education, so there's nothing to be gained by delaying submitting. Plus we get a certain number of years funding and once that runs out, that's it.

I've had a bit of a personal debate on this topic recently... a few times over. Yes, I am doing it in the UK, I am self-funded; I really only have to worry about visa extensions and how 'delayed' it is. I've got about a 6 month overflow period to either sit on it or turn it in 'early'. So I think it can be a reasonable topic on this forum. It just depends on how the person is prepared to view their PhD in the balance of should I stay or should I go.