Brian Vastag writes that despite the Federal Government encouraging more people to become scientists, the jobs for these budding researchers just aren’t there. Highlights include:

• Traditionally scientists could conduct their research at academic institutions. However now just 14% of those with a doctorate in biology manage an academic position in the five years after graduation.
• At the same time the pharmaceutical industry has cut down on its research due to mergers, falling profits, declining investment, and outsourcing. One estimate suggests that 300,000 jobs have been lost since 2000.
• 38% of young chemists are unemployed. This is likely an under-estimate since many have found employment in low-skill jobs that don’t utilize their talents.
• Not all fields share this fate. Computer engineers, petroleum engineers, and physicists are doing remarkably well. Some even end up going to Wall Street.

To read more including why young scientists are now trapped in a Ponzi scheme, how post-docs have changed, the problem of debt, what scientists are now telling their children, what the experts have to say about it, where the jobs used to be located, and the stories of some who are trapped in this unenviable position, click here.

Source: The Washington Post