To: OP
(1) There was a recent thread that asked the same question. In case you missed it, here's the link:
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...n-demand-employable-physics-subfields.943422/
(2) There is no good answer to your question. You are seeking a projection of the job market ~10 yrs out; whereas, the historical record shows that job markets can invert (boom to bust, or bust to boom) within a time span of only ~1 yr. Technological advances, government policies, economic cycles, industry consolidation, latest trendy business models, wars, ... can have disruptive effects.
(3) Be careful of making salary conclusions based on surveys, you may need to dig deeper. Such surveys often aggregate data without regard to education level and years of experience. You need to find data based on your intended degree (a PhD) and years of experience. And, of course, "median" means half make more, half make less; so you need more granularity.
(4) You need to organize your wish list more systematically into two lists:
(a) Requirements (must have)
(b) Preferences (would like to have)
From your posts so far, it appears to me that if you lump the entire contents of your wish list under "Requirements", you will find that some items are mutually exclusive. In which case, you will need to move some items from "Requirements" to "Preferences". Note that this exercise will grow more complex should your personal circumstances grow more complex (working spouse, children in school, owning a house ...)
(5) The job that you desire did exist at one time in major corporate R&D labs (in the US, e.g., Bell Labs and IBM Watson were once a haven for physics research). With perhaps a few outliers here and there, that era is past (but who knows whether there will be a rebirth in the future). In Canada, if you had completed your PhD in quantum optics/optical physics/optoelectronic devices in 1999, you probably would have found a job to your liking with Nortel. But, of course, within a few years, you would have been out on the streets. So, even if you are one of the lucky few to find your dream job, the odds are against you that you will maintain it for the rest of your working life. You had better be adaptable ... unless you have a sufficiently large trust fund, or marry rich.
