<p>It's not just Humanities majors who are struggling to find work.</p>
<p>interesting- it is what I am seeing with D’s friends</p>
<p>The “blessing in disguise” that son overreached for grad schools and got a high paying job in his math/comp sci fields for now. Makes it easier for parents not having gifted son not in grad school- for now. Have heard from several with PhDs and experience about tough job market- getting grants is harder, needed to keep a job as well.</p>
<p>And this article is an example of why every journalist should be required to take a rigorous course in statistics before being cleared to publish their “findings”.</p>
<p>Scrolling through the graphs and text, I don’t find a single reference to the total number of PhD’s produced each year over time- only that the percentages finding jobs are decreasing. A quick search confirmed my suspicion that the total number of PhDs produced in the sciences has been increasing dramatically over the past 10 years:
[nsf.gov</a> - NCSES Numbers of U.S. Doctorates Awarded Rise for Sixth Year, but Growth Slower - US National Science Foundation (NSF)](<a href=“http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf10308/]nsf.gov”>http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf10308/)</p>
<p>Back in the olden days, earning a PhD meant that someone was truly driven by an obsessive curiosity and desire to become an expert in their field. Now I often hear grad students admit that their primary reason to pursue a PhD is the (misguided) belief that it will increase their job prospects and paycheck. These kids are not going to be competitive for tenure track positions. I wish the powers that be would emphasize the importance of science education for every citizen (especially journalists!) rather than promoting propaganda that everyone should become a scientist.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Maybe the author should have gotten one of those unemployed English PhDs to proofread the article for him.</p>
<p>What’s the bottom line? There is a crowding out process occurring? Job prospects aren’t great. The supply of jobs hasn’t kept up with demand. Correct?</p>
<p>Pretty much. Tenure-track positions are increasingly supplemented or replaced by adjuncts, visiting professorships, etc.</p>
<p>My H got a doctorate in 1980–he heard the same thing back then, i.e., tenure-track positions fading away, use of adjuncts, etc. etc. I believe that everyone in his program (at an Ivy) did find a position–not all in academia.</p>
<p>Been hearing this for 40 years. And I think there are many, many, many more jobs for science Ph.Ds in the business world than there ever were back then. They do, however, to compete with non-U.S. students getting Ph.Ds who may be more driven.</p>
<p>It does go both ways. I know a newly minted Ph.D. from Mississippi who has a tenure-track position in Gangzhou.</p>
<p>^ You do mean Guangzhou, don’t you? I envy your acquaintance. For my money, Guangzhou has the best food in the world (the center of Cantonese cuisine, of course).</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I heard the same thing when I finished my PhD in 1984. Doom and gloom. Employment prospects are going down the toilet. PhDs begging for jobs at McDonalds, and on and on.</p>
<p>In our department, at a mid-level UC, every student I knew who finished his/her PhD got a good job.</p>
<p>The 80’s are over. They are like the 50’s when we lived in the 80’s.</p>
<p>Sure the 80s are over, but I think doctoral students universally tend to be a pessimistic lot, especially when they’re nearing the stage of looking for a job. I imagine these gluts of Phds tend to run in cycles. I remember reading an article about 10 years ago talking about the shortage of Phds because the baby boomer profs would be retiring soon.</p>
<p>We know where the glut comes from. Women. Sigh. Any profession that newly attracts a large number of women soon has its wages reduced. Think doctors, lawyers, Ph.Ds. Next will be engineers.</p>
<p>Mini, supply and demand? Society is anti women? Combo?</p>
<p>Yes, but they can tell you why you want fries with that.</p>
<p>We’ve hired a fair number of Phds recently including one person in the group that I haven’t met yet. My guess is that she’s from China or Taiwan.</p>
<p>I think that choosing an adviser wisely can improve job prospects. Someone that has a lot of contacts in industry and is doing research work for companies in areas with profit potential can make the person quite valuable; even if a Phd isn’t received.</p>
<p>Mini, any profession that attracts a large new cohort will have its wages reduced (all things being equal). You learn that in Econ 1 on the second day. Why demonize women? There are states now that are evaluating a laundry list of licensing requirements and debating whether they should eliminate them- interior designers, manicurists, etc. The trade association for these people are livid- if “anyone” can enter the design field without a license, more will enter and wages will go down. Male or female. That’s how a market works.</p>
<p>I don’t think there is anything in this PhD debate that isn’t a retread from the 1980’s. Professors get tenure and then don’t have the decency to drop dead at age 65 thereby clogging the aisles for newly minted PhD’s. Yawn. Heard it back in 1978 when I was debating going to grad school. Heard it after the tech bust in 2001 when so many people were out of work and contemplating getting doctorates. Sigh.</p>
<p>“Why demonize women?”</p>
<p>On the contrary, as the father of two daughters, I sympathize. (I have one who will enter the Ph.D. market within a year or so.) The market (that wonderful hidden hand) brings down the value of a profession when large numbers of more than half the population enters it.</p>
<p>“Mini, supply and demand? Society is anti women? Combo?”</p>
<p>Of course. And of course women are competing for tenure during their prime childbearing years.</p>
<p><a href=“http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/keeping-women-in-science-on-a-tenure-track/[/url]”>http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/keeping-women-in-science-on-a-tenure-track/</a>
<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/10/AR2010071002610.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/10/AR2010071002610.html</a></p>
<p>Back in the dark ages when dinosaurs roamed the earth, my college had exactly one tenure-track female professor. The general sense was “why hire them if they won’t stay?” Said with straightfaces by real men.</p>
<p>My impression that I have gathered from my friends and relatives – I myself have only an MBA – is that getting a PhD is years of grueling, grueling, thankless and sometimes shameful work that really tests the limits of your sanity and forces you into identity crisis after identity crisis. It’s such a shame that people who have given themselves to this endeavor have such grim prospects at the end of the road, whether it’s a PhD in 12th Century Ukrainian Women’s Literature or a PhD in Nuclear Physics.</p>