Science PhDs Have Very Low Jobless Rates
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According to Baye's Theorem, the P(PhD|jobless) = P(jobless|PhD)*P(PhD)/P(jobless)
Where according to [1], P(PhD) = 0.01 (for all PhDs) so assuming roughly half are science, P(PhD) = 0.005, and we get
P(PhD|jobless) = 0.0013, or 0.13%, which means that roughly 1 out of every 1000 jobless people has a PhD.
[1]http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_...
(I have a PhD. In probability.)
No, it is a measure of how much job security a PhD is correlated with. I believe that the qualities that lead to one being able to complete a PhD are positively correlated with being able to get and hold a job. Therefore you need to restrict to just those people you think could get a PhD to figure out how much the PhD helps or hurts you.
The unemployment rate for panhandlers is also very low, very few of them face redundancy
Probably not very many. Typical postdoc pay is $40-60k/year depending on where the job is located ($40k in Urbana-Champaigne, $60k NYC or Chicago).
That's about 2-4x lower than what the postdoc could get in the outside world, but it's a far cry from minimum wage.
I say thee "Ha!", sir. The offers I was getting for post-docs were consistently on or below the low end of that range, even in San Francisco (which ain't cheap).
Probably one of the biggest nudges I had away from academia was the realization that as a post-doc, I'd have a lower standard of living than I did as a graduate student. It didn't seem like a smart trend to follow.
I guess applied math is the place to be if you want to stay in academia.
You'd be foolish not to hire one.
If so, then who doesn't consider that a "job", and why should we care that they have this bizarre viewpoint?
1. it has not been proved to work,
2. it didn't work in a specific case,
3. my replacement method is mathematically rigorous.
And that is why I work for a megacorp, at the moment.
"The unemployment rate for PhDs in science, engineering, and health is about one-fourth that of the general population."
Oh, come on, you're comparing this against the general population? People who get PhD's in these subjects are typically great high school students who get into good colleges, major in difficult subject matter with high attrition rates, score high on standardized tests, survive a highly selective admissions process to grad school, spend up to a decade in an immensely difficult academic program with astoundingly high attrition rates compared with elite medicine, dentistry, law, or mba programs, and do some unpaid postdoc work.
A low unemployment rate compared to the national average. Gee, now there's a good control group.
For a more sobering viewpoint, take a look at a recent RAND study about the employment prospects for scientists and engineers relative to professions: