Category Archives: Jobs

There Aren’t Enough ‘Good’ Jobs

Posted on March 20, 2014 by mikethemadbiologist

A while ago, I noted what should be obvious about poverty-level wages: as long as there is a job that does not pay a living wage, one of us will have to fill it. There’s a flip side to that … Continue reading →

Posted in Basic Human Decency, Economics, Jobs | Comments Off on There Aren’t Enough ‘Good’ Jobs

Why We Need to Prioritize Employment: It’s the Fear, Stupid

Posted on February 12, 2014 by mikethemadbiologist

In moments of anger, I’ve written that tenured economists talking about jobs is like celibate priests talking about sexuality: they don’t live in the same world the rest of us do. This is unfair to some economists: a fair number … Continue reading →

Posted in Basic Human Decency, Economics, Jobs | 3 Comments

More on the STEM ‘Shortage’: The Electrical Engineering Edition

Posted on February 6, 2014 by mikethemadbiologist

The STEM job market just keeps getting better and better (boldface mine): Despite an expanding use of electronics in products, the number of people working as electrical engineers in U.S. declined by 10.4% last year. The decline amounted to a … Continue reading →

Posted in Jobs | 1 Comment

Meet the New Silicon Valley Boss, Same As the Old Boss: Putting the STEM ‘Crisis’ In Context

Posted on January 27, 2014 by mikethemadbiologist

During the last decade, we’ve heard repeatedly that there is a STEM jobs shortage, even as there is a PhD glut, a stalling out in the biomedical sector with a slight drop in wages, and a refusal to hire older … Continue reading →

Posted in Bidness, Crime Pays?, Economics, Jobs | 3 Comments

Obsolence in Scientific Subdisciplines

Posted on January 15, 2014 by mikethemadbiologist

Proflikesubstance notes the following (boldface mine): The question of reducing the number of PhDs produced is a complex one and there’s simply no chance that the overall numbers will be reduced evenly across the board. It seems inevitable that certain … Continue reading →

Posted in Jobs | 2 Comments

Is Open Access/Science the Biggest Problem We Face? (How About a Different Emphasis For 2014?)

Posted on January 3, 2014 by mikethemadbiologist

Before the new year, there was a bit of a backlash against boycotting the glamour magz, spurred by Nobel Laureate Randy Schekman’s call to avoid said glamour magz. I like open access and alternative publishing models–hell, I would just as … Continue reading →

Posted in Funding, Jobs | 4 Comments

Wages and Power

Posted on December 30, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

One of my first posts, back on the old blog, was about my estrangement from progressives circa 2006 because they neglected five key issues: What you’ll notice missing from this list are any proposals that would seriously alter the relationship … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Jobs | 2 Comments

Biomedical Scientist Job Creation Stalls Out

Posted on December 26, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

Inspired by this post by John Protevi, I decided to update an old post about biomedical sector jobs. When we last tuned in, jobs in this sector soared from nearly 54,000 in 2002 to 101,000 in 2008, and then declined … Continue reading →

Posted in Jobs, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Higgs and No Slack in the System

Posted on December 10, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

Peter Higgs, of the Higgs boson and Nobel Prize recipient, recently had this to say about the state of science (boldface mine): Peter Higgs, the British physicist who gave his name to the Higgs boson, believes no university would employ … Continue reading →

Posted in Jobs | 3 Comments

If Scientists Don’t Value Our Labor, Who Will? The San Diego Postdoc Edition

Posted on October 23, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

I think there’s something in the water in the San Diego area because researchers there are offering volunteer post-docs: that’s right–you get to be a post-doc for free. Recently, an ad was posted for a volunteer post-doc “in the La … Continue reading →

Posted in Bidness, Career Stuff, Jobs, NIH | 9 Comments