> Also I have noticed a growing trend of physicists becoming data scientists post phD. The number of basic research jobs in physics is a pretty fixed supply, s

> Also I have noticed a growing trend of physicists becoming data scientists post phD. The number of basic research jobs in physics is a pretty fixed supply, since it's determined largely by public funding, and there are always many more applicants than jobs. Therefore, any trends you've noticed about physicists leaving the field for other jobs is much more reflective of the number of students entering the field (always rising) who eventually must leave, and the extent to which they publicly discuss their experiences. If anything, hearing about more people leaving physics would be a positive indicator for the desirability of the field, since it just means more people tried and failed to obtain a slot. (As it happens, I think fundamental physicists research is a pretty diseased field, but a shortfall in researchers due to PhDs being drawn away to greener pastures is not a symptom.) Note that applied physics is different, since there is an actual market in researchers for industrial R&D; a shortfall in jobs really could reflect a failing field. My vague impression is rather that applied physics is booming, but know very little about that. And just to be clear on the numbers: If, over a career, every research professor mentors N grad students, and the number of research professor jobs grows slowly (as it has since the explosive growth in prof jobs that peaked in the '60s has waned), then the chance of any PhD becoming a professor must be about 1/N. If you look at the numbers, that chance is a few percent, which agrees with the typical professor advising ~20 students over a career. That means ~95% of PhD are going to be leaving to do something else. Anyways, for me personally: I have a PhD in quantum information and am currently searching for a mathematical definition of branches in a many-body wavefunction. This would potentially lead to large computational speed-ups in numerical simulations of out-of-equilibrium systems. I'm in my 7th year of postdoc-ing which...is not ideal.