There is a lot of demand for stem educated individuals in America right now and this may be disappointing to all you journalism majors and sports-minded individuals. As much as I respect the good that Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education not only does for our citizens and the country as a whole, but there are a lot of benefits to watching sports.

Journalism degrees may be considered futile these days, but sports is a great teacher. Just a few days ago, I was feeling low and watched almost by accident one of my favorite episodes in the America’s game series which was about those never say die New York Giants of 2007. NFL films needs a special mention here for their award winning series. The season that these Giants had was so incredible and inspiring that I was immediately energized.

I know there have been a lot of criticisms of the Occupational Outlook Handbook that the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes, but I found them to be a fairly good guide to let me know in what direction the economy is going. The following is a direct quote from the site:

Employment of athletes, coaches, umpires, and related workers is expected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations through 2018. Very keen competition is expected for jobs at the highest levels of sports with progressively more favorable opportunities in lower levels of competition.[1]

America is the spot as most people tend to like 2 or 3 sports usually the major sports and the earning potential and viewing audience is a lot along with the higher GDP per capita than let’s say India where cricket is a national obsession. Even with India being so cricket crazy, they really only have one major league that consists of just 9 teams as opposed to the 90 or so teams when counting all the NBA, NFL and MLB teams here in the US.

The entertainment value of sports and the togetherness it brings is really immeasurable, although one can make the argument that there are also divisions that are inevitably created. I would be very pleased to be able to just watch ESPN all day and make a good living of it at the same time.

---