Obama likes to say that America's future lies with science, advocating for more young people to go into research, but the truth is that the supply of PhDs has been vastly outpacing the job market for years, resulting in a glut

Anyone who goes into science expecting employers to clamor for their services will be deeply disappointed. Physicists and physicians are holding their own with unemployment rates under 2%, but just 14% of new PhDs in biology and life sciences get an academic position within five years of graduating. And although the unemployment rate for PhD grads overall is lower than the national average, that's because many work outside of their fields or as lowly paid post-docs. Pharmaceutical companies, the old fall-back position for PhDs, have slashed 300,000 jobs in the United States since 2000. Even very good chemists with PhDs from Stanford can't find jobs. And let us not forget that many of these graduates will be competing against immigrants from Asia.