Still Thinking About That Astronomy Career? It may be worth the...

Still Thinking About That Astronomy Career?
It may be worth the buy-in cost of education. But such a decision comes with one major caveat: the rate of creation of new, permanent jobs in astronomy/astrophysics/planetary science is at or near zero. It’s not clear where the 11% “projected ten-year growth” in the graphic is coming from, unless temporary, “soft money” positions — where the real ‘growth’ in astronomy is happening — are included.
The good news: The training one gets in academic astronomy makes for skills marketable in many other areas from financial services to intelligence analysis. Astronomers graduate with some hefty problem-solving skills, and those leaving the field find employment in some pretty diverse sectors of the economy.
(Source: National Center for Educational Statistics and Yahoo calculator for 750 professions)