Physics Bachelor's Initial Employment

A while back I commented on the missed opportunity of an interview article of educating people on what one can do with an undergraduate physics degree. We can certainly provide a lot more detailed information than what was contained in that news article. And example came this week. The AIP has released the latest data on the initial employment of physics Bachelor degree holder based on a 2006/2007 survey. 39% were employed, 4% were still seeking employment, while the rest pursued graduate degrees.

The survey than broke down those who were employed into the various areas of employment. The largest were in the private sector (59%).

Physics bachelor’s working in the private sector accepted positions with a diverse set of employers doing a wide range of activities (see Figure 3). Over 70% of the physics bachelor’s who accepted employment in the private sector work in a STEM field. As has been true in the past, employment in the field of engineering represents the largest proportion of these private sector positions, followed by computer science and information technology positions. Non-STEM positions accounted for 29% of the new bachelor’s employed in the private sector. The types of positions in this category are very diverse, with "finance" and "marketing and sales" being most frequently cited.

This new statistics should give a lot more information on the various profession that a physics Bachelor degree holder has the potential of going into.

Zz.