I have been forced to think about the job market lately. It started with a class assignment which was meant to simply open my eyes to current job market. I felt that I was already familiar enough but completed the assignment to be a good student. I completed the assignment and outlined the skills I need improve upon and so forth. With in day of completing my assignment I came across "A Guide and Advice for Economists on the U.S. Junior Academic Job Market: 2014-2015 Edition" after clicking through some links on facebook. I found it a great read and it caused me to starting thinking about a few things that will likely prove helpful down the road. I had originally intended to pursue a Ph.D. in Economics after finishing my M.S. in Statistics. However, life took a turn and I ended up working full time and then started working on my Ph.D. in Statistics part time while continuing to work. Make sure that you take a look at the salary tables that are included. The table below is for full time working White Males by which Ph.D. they obtained. There is more variation associated with the Economics degree, but not enough to not make it look better than Math or Statistics based solely upon salary.
| For White Males | Median Salary | SE | 95 % Range | |
| Mathematics/Statistics | $100,000 | 1,500 | (97,000 - 103,000) | |
| Economics | $126,000 | 5,500 | (115,000 -137,000) | |
(Data taken from: Table 50 , the 95% range is mine based on the assumption of a normal distribution.)
There is also an article in the American Statistician recently about career paths, "Which Career Path Will You Follow?". Between these three events that occurred within a week, I thought that it merited a post. Have some other useful job advice or interesting statistics that current graduate students should know? Post a comment.