Lately, the news has been focusing on the “devastating consequences” that will come from Trump’s cuts to University research programs funded by the US government. It seems like every day there’s another news story highlighting how many lives will be lost, suffering increased, jobs lost and programs hamstrung by these cuts.
Today, it occurred to me that I should look at the numbers vs. panicking over anecdotal news stories from people whose jobs and programs are directly impacted.
Here’s what I learned:
- 210,000 people are employed in Research at US Universities.
- This represents .12% of the total US workforce of 170M
Do you even know a single person who is employed as a researcher? I don’t.
AI says that the average person in the US knows 200-600 people. Out of these people we know, .12% (.24 to .72) are employed in University Research.
I don’t know about your social circle, but mines much less than 200 people. So not only do I not know anyone working in university research, there’s less than 1/4 % chance I ever will.
If you’re an extroverted super networker who’s at the top end of the social network scale, you’ve got a 3/4% chance of knowing someone who works in research.
Trump’s cuts are arbitrary, political, vengeful and capricious, undoubtedly.
Some of the programs whose funding has been cut appear to be a waste of money. Some, most likely, are quite essential. I’m not debating the merits of either argument here since I don’t have the details nor am I interested in digging into the specifics.
Instead, I wanted to understand on the workforce.
- Is it devastating to those directly affected? Certainly. Losing your job is life impacting.
- Is it devastating to the US employment picture as a whole? Likely not.
Like the farmers, it helps me to look at the numbers behind the stories to better understand the bigger picture.