Conflicting employment information

[holomorphic]

First, sorry if this thread ends up repeating some information covered elsewhere.

Alright, OUTSIDE of academia, how are people with math/applied math/physics PhDs (not engineering) faring in the job search?

On the one hand I'm hearing from everyone that the unemployment of science PhD holders is higher than the national average unemployment.

On the other hand, there are articles like http://brendarosenhamer.blog.com/2011/02/10/national-science-foundation-1-7-unemployment-for-phds-in-sciences-and-engineers/
and
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69402/title/Science_%2B_the_Public__In_tough_economy,_PhD_appears_to_help
that directly contradict that.

Can anyone offer recent, personal anecdotes?

 

[fss]

I got my advanced degree, decided I didn't want to continue in academia, and was employed within 2 months. YMMV.

 

[holomorphic]

I got my advanced degree, decided I didn't want to continue in academia, and was employed within 2 months. YMMV.

Thanks fss. Mind mentioning 1) when this was, 2) what your degree is in, and 3) what sort of job?

 

[Chunkysalsa]

You know you posted the same link twice ^_^

 

[holomorphic]

You know you posted the same link twice ^_^

Doh. Thanks--fixed.

 

[twofish-quant]

On the one hand I'm hearing from everyone that the unemployment of science PhD holders is higher than the national average unemployment.

I'm wondering where you are hearing this from. My personal observation is that the unemployment of science/math Ph.D. is quite lower than the average and that the NSF stats are accurate. There are two things that are potentially misleading...

1) It's extremely likely that a science/math Ph.D. will not get their job of choice, but that's a different question than getting any job at all. Science/math Ph.D.'s have extreme difficulty getting their dream job, but that's different from getting any job.

2) Science/math Ph.D.'s are in a totally different world than humanities Ph.D.'s.

 

[fss]

Thanks fss. Mind mentioning 1) when this was, 2) what your degree is in, and 3) what sort of job?

Recently, Physics, Engineering.