The Problem

For the past 10 years the problems of the job market for physicists and astronomers have been discussed from the perspective of students entering a university program, students about to graduate and from those that have been working in the field for some time. The publications of the American Physics Society (APS), the American Institute of Physics (AIP) and the American Astronomical Society (AAS) have been the forum for such discussion. In most workplaces, especially in academia and national laboratories, budget cuts have lead to downsizing, not filling openings caused by retirees, and/or hiring personnel on short term positions which are usually supported by `soft' monies (postdocs, research professors, research associates, etc).

The `crisis' in the Physics job market (which includes Astronomy), specifically in the US, has been studied closely in the past 10 years (Cioffi 1995a; Mulvey & Neuschatz 1996; Kumagai 1997 & 1998; AIP 1997, 1997b, 1998 & 1999). Having worked as a professional astronomer in various countries it is clear to me that the same situation and circumstances can be found, in a greater or lesser extent, outside the US. The depressed job market is equally bad for Science Majors (BSc) and the PhD populations, perhaps worse so for PhDs since the majority of BScs choose to continue graduate school in Physics or in some other fields (see diagram on page 52 of `Physics Today' August 1997). With the number of postdoctorals being twice as high as the number of new PhD's produced each year, it is likely that the number of experienced postdoctorals re-entering the postdoctoral market far exceeds those entering for the first time. These populations also compete in the job market with more experienced PhDs who exit industry or the federal goverment as funding for basic and applied research diminishes. The authors of the survey determined that 50% of those who answered the survey, desire positions in academia and from these 20% will eventually get permanent academic positions in the USA. More surprisingly, 57% of those with jobs indicated that they had accepted positions where they would make very little use of their physics background. On another front, the poor prospects of the job market is one of the causes for a continuous drop in Physics enrollment in undergraduate and graduate programs, through most of the 1990's (Cioffi, 1995b; Mulvey & Neuschatz, 1995 & 1996; AIP, 1997). Though the numbers of new BSc and PhD recipients has risen, a drop is expected soon if the enrollment trend continues. Physics and Astronomy degree recipients are also taking about one year longer, on the average, to graduate compared with students from previous classes. Another unpleasant fact is that since the 1950's the median age of physics professors in the US universities has been rising almost linearly (Gruner et al. 1995) such that by 1992, 50% of the full professors were at least 54 years old. Over the same period of time, the distribution of physics subfields, in academically employed PhD's, has remained roughly the same. Though the first point shows that the academic job market has been narrowing over the past 2 decades, I find the second point more disturbing because it seemed to indicate that physics research (and probably education) has `evolved' to encompass a fixed set of subjects and areas of specialization and one consequence is the loss of job opportunities in new areas of research. In the past few years we have seen more interesting and exciting developments of cross-fertilization with biology, medicine, complex systems, advanced materials, earth sciences and information systems, to name but a few. Still, the few who are working in these areas are not yet having an impact within US physics departments or must leave the academic environment to work in industry. This is, essentially, the current state of the undergraduate and graduate programs in the US and the corresponding job markets. Though much more can certainly be said and argued in this subject, this is not the purpose or scope of this paper. The `state of affairs' is serious enough no matter what the cause(s) or other effects might be. Most experts studying the job market attribute the problems not only to the `state of the economy worldwide and local' or the lack of strong research initiatives and the budgets required, but also to the poor preparation students are receiving in order to either: (a) pursue studies in other related or non-related fields which may provide better job opportunities or, (b) get jobs in other related or non-related fields (Cioffi 1995c). Wolf's article, `Is Physics Education Adapting to a Changing World' (Wolf 1994), discusses, among other issues, how poorly physicists are being trained to work successfully in non-academic fields. The needs in the academic and industrial work-places are very different. Perspectives and constraints like: time pressure, budgets, team work, manufacturability, etc, define this highly competitive working enviroment. The engineers' academic training is more suited for this work-place. A few programs have been developed especially for undergraduate students in physics, chemistry, mathematics or engineering in order to expose them to large-scale projects that involve team work among people from different disciplines and the research needs of other fields. For example, the program at the University of California's Davis campus in collaboration with Livermore Laboratories trains students in `applied physics' with a strong industry perspective. The general idea is that if students get involved in research, outside the academic setting, they will be more prepared to face the challenges in other career opportunities. It seems that these efforts have worked for the few exposed to this training. In Carthage College, Wisconsin, their program is designed to supplement formal science training with the concepts and skills required in the financial, economic and business fields. US universities are starting to involve industry in the training of BSc students by designing work and study programs in which students can get some `on the job training' and experience, for a few summers or semesters, and see what industry is all about. This experience has proven valuable in getting them their first job (Cioffi 1995a, Kumagai 1999a). The Society of Physics Students (SPS), a national association for mostly BSc students in the US, and the AIP have been emphasizing the message to produce more `flexible' students. The new motto for BSc students is `Study Physics to be a Non-physicist'. On the other hand, much reform is being discussed for the graduate programs, as illustrated by the document `Reshaping the Graduate Education of Scientists and Engineers' released by a joint committee of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineers and the Institute of Medicine (Griffiths 1994). The main recommendation is to broaden the range of academic options to turn out more versatile graduates. The most compelling point (Gruner et al. 1995) is that physics employment is dependent upon social needs that must be fullfilled by scientists that have been prepared properly to address them. Social needs and concerns have changed and will continue to do so, hence present and future generations of scientists must be well prepared to meet the new challenges. While changes to graduate programs have been slow, much discussion has been focused on making the PhD degree more `practical'. A more immediate approach has been to modify the MSc degrees in Science and Mathematics to comply with the needs of an emerging or interdisciplinary field (Kumagai, 1999b). More than 50 new `professional' MSc degree programs now exist in areas like biotechnology, financial mathematics, enviromental sciences, etc, which intend to prepare the student for careers outside academia (managing industrial research projects, working as liaison between R&D and business, etc). A job market is rapidly growing for these `professional' MSc degrees which prepares students to become research managers in industry, national laboratories and goverment agencies. As an update of the job market's state of employment it should be mentioned that the employment opportunities for new PhD's in physics have marginally improved in the last three years (Kumagai; 1998 & 1999), partly due to a stronger economy but mostly because many are finding jobs in other fields like e.g. engineering, computer programmers, financial analysts, etc. The job market for PhD's, with degrees obtained before 1994, has also improved within the academic environment as results of a more recent survey shows (AIP Statistics, 1999).

© Copyright Astronomical Society of Australia 1997