Princeton PhD Jack Weiss jobless in US despite applying for over 2,300 posts

WASHINGTON: A young man in the United States who earned a PhD in chemical engineering has failed to find a job despite applying for more than 2,300 posts.

According to foreign media reports, 30-year-old Dr Jack Weiss, from Salt Lake City in the US state of Utah, received his doctorate from Princeton University in 2024.

He researched chemical principles and the interactions between molecules. In 2024, the Nobel Committee also cited his research on the process of ice formation as an example of the use of machine learning in scientific research, when it announced the Nobel Prize in Physics.

String of applications

At first, Dr Weiss applied for various research posts at pharmaceutical companies and for prestigious postdoctoral opportunities at national laboratories, but he was not successful.

He then began applying for more jobs, regardless of field or location, but in most cases he was not even called for an interview.

Unemployment figures

Although the overall unemployment rate in the US is low, the rate of long-term unemployment, meaning people who have been out of work for 27 weeks or more, reached nearly a decade-high level this summer.

This comparison does not include the Covid-19 pandemic and the period immediately after it.

Some figures also show that the unemployment rate among university graduates has risen above that of people who did not attend college or university.