A Comment re: "Senior" HP Personnel

[presley.j@atomcon.gc.ca]

     Fellow Radsafers,
     
     I am forwarding this personal reply to my
     original post since I think it puts the numbers
     in perspective.
     (Hope you don't mind, David)
     
     I, like David, am also looking forward to an
     early retirement.
     
     I must say that I was impressed by the dialogue
     that was generated. I initially had visions
     of another flame war erupting.
     
     Way to go Radsafers !!
     
     Jim Presley
     presley.j@atomcon.gc.ca


______________________________ Forward Header __________________________________
Subject: A Comment re: "Senior" HP Personnel
Author:  David Scherer <scherer@uiuc.edu> at INTERNET
Date:    9/16/96 3:31 PM


     
Jim,
     
Do you think the population attending the annual meeting is representative 
of the population of HPs at large?  I would sugest that senior HPs are 
overrepresented at the meeting because (1) they are often in higher 
administrative positions and (2) have fewer obstacle to this kind of travel 
(time, children, etc.).  They comprise a large fraction of meeting 
attenders, but a small fraction of the total HP population.  So even if they 
all retired tomorrow, the effect on the HP job market would be small.
     
If there are 1,000 senior HPs and 500 attend the meeting, they are an 
enormous fraction of those attending the meeting, maybe 1/3.  But they are 
only about 6 percent (1,000 out of 15K-20K) of all HPs.  Also, many of our 
elderly collegues are semi-retired and "dabble" as consultants.  There are 
perhaps 750 FTEs occupied by those over retirement age.  Please be assured 
that there are more than 750 open positions right now, even if they don't 
show up in the HPS Newsletter.  And what would be the solution for next 
year's new grads?  So if the older folks moved out of the way, it would 
barely dent the problem.
     
BTW, I'm not in this group; I'm under 40 but would be happy to be retired 
anyway.
     
Dave
scherer@uiuc.edu