"Things seem to be finally leveling off and starting to go forward a bit," says Steven Kravinsky, director of career placement for the sciences, business, and liberal arts at Iowa State University of Science and Technology in Ames. "In the Midwest, we've never felt the fluctuations [in the job market] as severely as they were felt on the coasts. So a slight recovery for us probably means more in terms of the big picture."
The current employment dynamics for young scientists appear to be stabilizing into new, probably long-term, patterns, career placement professionals say. These include an employer pool made up chiefly of small and medium-sized organizations, an increase in temporary and contract employment, requirements that candidates have some work and research experience specific to the demands of their potential jobs, and more interest in hiring master's and even bachelor's degree holders rather than those with doctorates in technical and ...
