Comment by giardini

tl;dr summary:

- "a net loss of 4224 STEM Ph.D.s"

Far less than the headline "10k"

- "departing Ph.D.s took with them a wealth of subject matter expertise and knowledge about how the agencies operate".

Whether such "expertise and knowledge" is worthwhile or exclusive to these Ph.D.s, or even useful at all, remains to be seen.

Every time I've seen a PhD enter a private organization they've gummed up the works and left only after bollixing things up. While possibly excellent for hard science research, PhDs can have a POV incompatible with solving problems quickly.

What this means is that even MORE than the usual STEM PhDs will be entering the private sector, possibly further gumming up the works, as bosses try to fit PnDs (round pegs) into private jobs (square holes).