For much of the past 10-15 years, it has been a commonplace in many academic and public advocacy settings to emphasize current or prospective "shortages" or "shortfalls" in the US science and engineering workforce. ... Only a few years later, it became apparent that the trend was in the opposite direction ... Labor market projections that go very far into the future are notoriously problematic. ... [Some experts] have expressed energetic concerns about the increasingly unattractive career experiences of newly minted scientists and engineers. The main message of this note is that the two apparently contradictory concerns above are in fact closely linked. |