Ask HN: Are there 'too many' people training to be data scientists right now?
Will the field expand to accommodate the number of graduates over the next few years?
Yes in the sense that I don't think the field, such as it is, will expand sufficiently to accomodate everyone.
But no in the sense that I think the sorts of skills and problem solving approaches that one acquires while training for data science will become important in other fields.
So in my opinion even if everyone studying machine learning and statistics etc. doesn't get a data scientist job title, there are going to be increasing numbers of ways to apply that knowledge to existing jobs.
It's the same reason someone with a phd (from a good program) can succeed in non-native fields. Such general skills and soft skills have applications beyond a single field.