<p>With government spending on science stagnant and industry cutting back on science R&D, many scientists are now unemployed or underemployed.</p>
<p>U.S</a>. pushes for more scientists, but the jobs aren’t there - The Washington Post</p>
<p>A discouraging situation. Tough to name a field where there’s truly a shortage. Well, then again, yes… there’s a shortage of those willing to go get a college degree and then work for minimum wage.</p>
<p>Sciences, Nursing, Engineering, none really have shortage anymore.</p>
<p>Primary care physicians. Huge shortage. And will be bigger in the coming years.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>I always shake my head when people who know better insist that only STEM majors are worth doing. Here’s the money quote:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s sad. She loves science and math and her parent is telling her not to study what she loves. Ironic that it isn’t some humanity major the parent was cautioning against. In that case there would likely be a parade of posters saying how valuable humanitites majors are.</p>
<p>We have seen threads regarding so many majors and professions where the people in that field are telling others not to go into that, it is doing terrible now. Well, almost everything is doing terrible now. Jobs are scarce in many fields. Every field is overworking the employees they have instead of hiring enough to actually handle the workload. </p>
<p>If people stop chasing where they think the jobs are, and focus on what they are good at they will probably do better in the long run.</p>
<p>As usual, the article lumps all sciences together in sweeping generalizations.</p>
<p>However, it is the case that biology (the most popular science major by far) and chemistry graduates do not have very good job and career prospects, as shown in the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys.html</a> .</p>
<p>Math, statistics, and physics majors often do not work in research in their fields either, but they do tend to have better backup options like computer software, finance, and (for physics majors) engineering jobs (though they are often the second choice compared to those actually majoring in those subjects). Some claim that geology majors are desired by oil, gas, and mining companies, but the career surveys at colleges seem to have too little data to say how true that is.</p>
<p>Very relevant topic. The farther into grad school, the more my kid worries. Academic positions so hard to find, and unless he shifts to A.I. Topic, where is there research labs? If he ends up in a computer firm, what was use of Ph.D.? Will he be doing anything more than with his UG degree?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well put. I’ll add to remind students to spend more time networking and getting positively noticed at their school too. Just having a degree isn’t what it takes anymore. You need the degree, people skills, and great references from those who know you well job-wise, plus it never hurts to be loved by people currently working in the field - found via networking or internships or whatever.</p>
<p>When there are fewer jobs, only the most competitive will get them. Getting the degree is just one portion of the competition. </p>
<p>But by all means, do something you love. You only live once. Why waste your time on earth doing something you don’t love? Money isn’t everything. (Bad days on the job happen, as do distasteful tasks, but overall, one should love their field or work to change it IMO. I’d never send a STEM kid into another field nor vice versa.)</p>
<p>By far the great plurality of STEM majors are in nursing:</p>
<p>[American</a> Association of Colleges of Nursing | Nursing Shortage](<a href=“http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relations/fact-sheets/nursing-shortage/]American”>http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relations/fact-sheets/nursing-shortage/)</p>
<p>“If people stop chasing where they think the jobs are, and focus on what they are good at they will probably do better in the long run.”</p>
<p>I think that says it all. That is what I am trying to teach my daughter. 30 to 40 years spent doing something that you do not love is not a good way to spend 30 to 40 years .</p>
<p>^
But neither is 30-40 years of unemployment/severe underemployment, as many recent humanities PhD holders will attest. There’s a balance between practicality and passion.</p>
<p>I do not believe that a nursing degree is considered to be a STEM major.</p>
<p>I saw an article a few days back on jobs that could not be exported. One of them was for example hair stylists, and the explanation that you cannot have someone in India and China cut your hair for you. Needless to say such jobs that cannot be exported are low wage jobs.</p>
<p>With China producing so many engineering and science graduates, a lot of the reserach and engineering jobs have gone abroad. Some reserach jobs need advanced skills, equipment etc and that US leads. But a lot of the support activities can be done elsewhere. For example, a lot of the initial clinical trials for drugs are now done outside the US. It is cheaper and there are less restrictions. A lot of the work on aircraft development is done outside the US. There are many such examples. The Iphone may be designed in the US, but most of the manufacturing design and process is done outside.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, many high paying science and engineering jobs have gone overseas and they are not coming back in the near future.</p>
<p>“They” used to say there’d be a teacher shortage too, but that never happened either.</p>
<p>Tenured teachers didn’t quit, fearing they’d lose their pensions. Then states cut back and increased class sizes. Now the only ones hiring are “Teach for America”.</p>
<p>“I do not believe that a nursing degree is considered to be a STEM major.”</p>
<p>I think your belief is in error.</p>
<p>Based on a quick web search, there does not seem to be consistent agreement among colleges as to whether nursing is a “STEM major”.</p>
<p>“I think your belief is in error”</p>
<p>I suspect you would think many of my beliefs are in error.</p>
<p>But I’m curious as to what category nursing would fall into. Science, technology, engineering, math. Even the government, with their copious list of STEM majors:
<a href=“http://www.ice.gov/doclib/sevis/pdf/stem-list.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ice.gov/doclib/sevis/pdf/stem-list.pdf</a>
does not list nursing as a stem major.</p>
<p>Then again, another branch of government could have declared it a major, or maybe they added it over the last few years. God know anywhere in the govt they can’t make up their minds, so I guess you can’t take it as the last word.</p>
<p>But I’d never heard before that nursing was actually considered a STEM major, or anything other than a pre-professional major or some sort of health sciences major.</p>
<p><unfortunately, many="" high="" paying="" science="" and="" engineering="" jobs="" have="" gone="" overseas="" they="" are="" not="" coming="" back="" in="" the="" near="" future.=""></unfortunately,></p>
<p>Back in 2005, my company outsourced a lot of development to India and some to China. Since then, quite a bit of it has actually come back. Off-shore development is not without challenges. I am not familiar with pharma etc. but I am sure outsourcing is not easy for them either. I wonder if at some point they will reverse direction same as my company did</p>
<p>In order to get overseas companies to buy some products US companies are forced into agreements that part of the product will be made in that country. Often times many countries are helping to supply parts of one product.</p>
<p>Interestingly many products have fines for late delivery of product. This works especially well for an overseas company that can delay parts for so long that the product is then late in delivery. So the overseas company gets the work, delays the work and causes other overseas companies ( if not themselves) to get the product cheaper. </p>
<p>It is a mess.</p>