<p>Ugh, the graying is so terrible. I’m in a Ph.D program now and a lot of my colleagues are graduating and can’t find jobs because the ‘retirement boom’ that was predicted to have happened by now has NOT happened, and professors are staying on way past retirement age (and keeping their appointments even when they are not doing any research or teaching more than one class) because they have tenure. That, added to the recession, has caused many many universities to go on hiring freezes. A lot of my friends are getting post-doctoral positions now that barely pay more than our graduate stipends because there are very few professorships to be had.</p>
<p>Sorry about that mini-rant – on the more rational side, I understand that universities are businesses, and when businesses run out of money they have to fire people and not hire anyone sometimes.</p>