<p>I understand that you said “to be an academic” and that was the focus of my response. I think that better job prospects outside academia will lead to more demand for jobs within academia. </p>
<p>Imagine you are a computer science major. You graduate with a bachelors and have a number of high paying job offers. Are you more likely to take one of those jobs or continue with many more years of expensive schooling to obtain an academic job that is more difficult to find and pays less? </p>
<p>Then, imagine you are a biology major. After graduation you realize that the only jobs open to you are low paying lab tech positions. So, you pursue more education with the intention of working in academia.</p>
<p>As I said in my previous post. I do think the sciences would have a slight advantage over social sciences…but only slightly. Yes, the sciences need more research assistance but most of those positions are filled by graduate students and not full time professionals.</p>