According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average yearly salary for a Physicist (if you can find a job, of course) is $106,370. That is equivalent to $53.86 per hour. Currently there are close to 17,000 Physicists employed in the United States, doing work in industries such as medicine, scientific research, education, and even management. Interestingly, the highest paid Physicists in the country work in Minnesota.
What do you think about these numbers? Are they helpful? Do you think they are deceptive in any way? Why or why not?
I encourage you to follow the link below to the website for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I encourage you to poke around and check out the employment and salary statistics for any industry that you are interested in. Find out what you can expect the employment picture to be like in the career you want to go into.
http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes192012.htm
What do you think about these numbers? Are they helpful? Do you think they are deceptive in any way? Why or why not?
I encourage you to follow the link below to the website for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I encourage you to poke around and check out the employment and salary statistics for any industry that you are interested in. Find out what you can expect the employment picture to be like in the career you want to go into.
http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes192012.htm
Those sound like good numbers and are definitely something to market if you're looking for physicists to hire. However, the website doesn't say what kind of education these physicists have. A PhD in physics is no small achievement and I assume that the need for physicists is fairly satisfied which would mean every physics major in the US is competing for 17,000 jobs. Those odds seem pretty high. Also, a yearly salary means that you don't get paid by the hour, but rather whatever work you get assigned you need to complete regardless of whether you do it in 40 hours a week or 60 hours, so that is another factor to consider. When I look at those statistics, I can't help but come to the conclusion that unless you are genuinely passionate about physics and are willing to put in the time, money, and hard work in order to become qualified for a 100k/year job and then actually get a job, it's not worth the trouble.
ReplyDeleteAnatoly, you brought up a bunch of very good points. I'm pretty sure there are a lot more than 17,000 Physics majors in the country. I wonder what all those other people are doing who can't find one of the 17,000 jobs. I would think that the vast majority of those 17,000 have a PhD in Physics. It's almost a given nowadays that you need one in a field like Physics. I think you are absolutely right about how you really have to be fully committed and go all the way if you want to make it as a Physicist.
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