The percentage of women and foreigners with doctoral degrees who graduated from regional universities has been increasing over the five years. From the employment side, early engagement in the labor market by doctoral students focusing solely on school did not vary greatly from doctoral students studying at universities in metropolitan areas. However, their annual income, which is a key performance indicator, was lower than that of their metropolitan counterparts. A higher percentage of doctoral students who are focused on school in Daegu, Gyeongsang-do Provinces and Chungcheong-do Province were employed as salaried and full-time workers with a higher income level compared to their counterparts in other regions. Concurrently, they tended to move to metropolitan areas more than their counterparts. For doctoral students at regional universities, financial reasons played an important role in deciding whether to focus solely on school, along with personal reasons and the capacity of their graduate schools. Consequently, it indicates that local labor markets need to provide higher income and employment stability to competent talented local doctoral students from moving to other regions.