I thought Math would be safe?

Gotta wonder if it is worth it? The article even suggests that they teach at Community Colleges.

http://www.aimath.org/news/postdoc/


FROM THE ARTICLE:
"We knew that the job market for young PhDs in mathematics was extremely tight this year, but we were astonished by the number and quality of the applicants for these new positions," said Robert Bryant, Director of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley, California. More than 750 applications were submitted for the Institutes' postdocs, 400 of which came from people who received their PhD just this year.

 

My brother has a BS in Math and an MS in Operations Research. He just finished his final preliminary examination for Associateship in the Society of Actuaries. He has applied for dozens of jobs, and so far has only been on two interviews since January.

Things are really screwed up right now. He's even considering moving to China to teach. Apparently, they're so desperate for teachers in China that they don't even require that they speak Chinese.

 

This is tough. Hopefully things will turn around before too long.

At this point it looks like the only "safe" career paths are in health care, some areas of IT (such as Computer Science and Bio or Medical Informatics) and possibly engineering. Are there other "safe" career fields out there right now?

 

Special Education and Speech Pathology are very safe career fields. They can't find enough teachers. I was first hired before I got my teaching credential and on the same day of the first interview. I was competing against two other people. There aren't many people in these fields but their is a lot of demand.

 

Many people in China speak English, especially the younger people (like college students). If you ever go there you will find that people will want to talk to you just so they can practice their English language skills. Even on the internet, in Chinese chat rooms, etc. you will see people eager to communicate in English with English speaking people. Often times they are interested in learning idioms and slang. It can be fun to talk to them because then they ask about all sorts of cultural phenomenon like music, movies. They get bootleg versions of cds and films and sometimes they'll want to know "What did it mean when he said (enter idiomatic expression) You could look here for Chinese social networking sites:

http://www.youmeiti.com/chinas_campus_social_networkin.html

Also, many Chinese online newspapers have forums for reader. Since some of these newspapers have English versions available there begins to be conversations between Chinese and English speaking people. Look here:

http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/

 

In my local area people in health care are being laid off including nurses. Kaiser Permante just announced they will lay off 1800 employees.

In aerospace engineering I know quite a few people who were laid off months ago and can't find jobs. Several big programs have been cancelled with more on the way (not good for me ).

School districts and community colleges are laying teachers/facuty off.

State/local Govt employees are being laid off or their work week reduced

And stores/restaurants are laying people off or closing.

I hope the economy starts improving soon otherwise the economy might be heading for a depression.

The light at the end of the tunnel may be an oncoming train!

 

It's true that schools are laying off staff but where I live (Central Valley Calfornia) there are at least 10 opennings for special education. That is much more than the supply of teachers. Regular ed teachers can't find jobs but those that specialize are still in high demand. Districts that have recently layed off 10% of their teaching staff are still hiring for special ed staff. It's a different credential that is rare.

 

Where I live most of the SpEd kids are in the mainstream classrooms with the non-SpEd kids. It's termed "inclusion." This make SpEd teachers even more valuable. Now when a position becomes open people with SpEd credentials are preferred over others, even if the position is not a SpEd position, strictly speaking.

 

I don't think a lot of people are going to be running off to China, unless it is for fun. (I live and teach here.) The average university salary is under $1000 USD a month for up to PhD. quals. I double that here in a training center next to my home teaching kids ABC's through HS level English. University jobs in China are amongst the lowest paying for foreigners.

 

Would it be safe to say, with your local situation notwithstanding, that healthcare is still considered to be a relatively safe career field?

 

Very interesting. I have actually seriously considered becoming a Speech-Language Pathologist. I was unaware that the demand was so high for Spec Ed teachers.


Thanks,

 

The demand for speech-language pathologists is not very good where I live. I personally know two of them. One of them is currently working as a bank teller and the other was recently let go due to low demand.

 

Maybe it goes without saying but I also believe that careers in law enforcement are still "safe" but of course most entry level law enforcement jobs do not require a degree. Also as most will agree crime isn't simply going to go away so there is always a need for qualified people.

 

Where I live Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) get $10,000 bonus each year. It's an enticement to get them to sign on. Every district is now offering it. Many work a couple years with the school and then go into private practice. I know of one who worked private practice last year, part time and earned $60,000.

 

If you're ever in a bind and willing to move, the DC/Baltimore area seems to be doing well for engineers. The company I work for and several other companies I am aware of in this area are always looking for various types of engineers. (We need a few mechanical engineers, optical engineers, or physics grads with optics design experience; those who may be interested feel free to PM me) I have two friends that were laid off recently (mechanical engineers), and found it was very easy for them to find work. I don't know if this will change in the near future, I'm sure it can, but for now it seems things aren't too bad for engineers here.

 

Math isn't vocational training

Math is pretty safe. It's just not vocational training. CS is more vocational training than any programmer would care to admit. Math majors can become actuaries, work in quasi-technical roles in software development (i.e. business analysts and project managers), technical sales, and even write code. I think that Knuth guy has a Phd in Math.... There's always operations research, systems engineering, or industrial engineering. PhDs in Math can also work as quants or work with computer scientists.

The economy is bad right now. It's not particularly great in IT or Health Care either. As far as a job in academia is concerned, that's a different story. We do live in an era of 'cheap paper'. I'm not sure what your career goals are, but having a PhD in math is hardly unemployable. A PhD in history is another story.

You will have to go out and develop some specific job skills. That doesn't mean you have to go be a plumber. You might have to get an internship. Heck, everybody including Google, MS, IBM, etc hire grad school interns. Many hire math majors as well. I've meet a few engineers who didn't quite find work in their profession either.

What area of mathematics are doing research (or prospectively interested) in?

 

Didn't some economists say that we had long been in a depression way before George Bush decided to snap out of 'denial' about the fact that we were having serious economic problems?

 

There are no safe areas of work unless your in the military I think. I'm an accountant and we are generally able to get work but in my area its rough in Florida.

Add to that my company won't hire anyone with more than one advanced degree, it just looks bad to some of the higher ups.

Face it with the global marketplace people here in many fields have to compete with low cost competition one can even go abroad for far cheaper health care. And insurance companies will cover that in the future I'm sure once word of the savings and quality becomes more acceptable.

Mind you I respect people with advanced degrees but its hard for them. I with two decades of accounting experience, my two-year degree and refresher courses have a decent time. My bachelors I'm working on will add to that but I see little value to seek a degree over that. And my abilities will not accomdate that frankly.

 

Really?

I live in Florida and I plan on pursuing a masters in accounting, likely from Stetson or UCF. I was going to pursue a second masters in taxation later on. Why would this look bad?

 

uhm, yeah, the military, that's safe....


On a serious note the military is also taking its hits with some career fields being downsized and early outs being offered: (just one of many services)

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/navy/a/earlysep.htm