Answers:
As others have said, the market for PhDs, especially in molecular biology, is very saturated. It is very difficult to get into academia just by the sheer number of applicants for each position.
He is over qualified many employers cannot afford his salary and benefits. All the best he will get a job. Mind you some employers are not learned at all or are just average it's a big challenge employing somebody who is a teacher in almost all the fields and you expect to call your self the Boss.
There are so many possible factors at play that it would be impossible even for someone who knows your friend to accurately answer this question.
However, there are some options he or she might not have considered which might increase the possibility of finding employment in his or her chosen field.
Professors in molecular biology may be able to direct your friend toward potential employers by suggesting various applications for this science.
Certainly other molecular biologists, some of whom surely must be employed, can suggest specific potential employers.
It also may be that having the PhD is not sufficient--there may be a need for specialized training or experience.
I had a friend several years ago who had difficulty getting work as an accountant. He was a foreign national, and that may have been part of his problem, but he also had no experience (despite a very good academic record) and thus had no way to demonstrate that he actually could do the work.
So, he went to a major hospital and offered his services for free for three months. Who can resist a free sample? His sincerity and willingness to extend himself did land him a job, which he held for several years until he chose to move on.
It worked for him, it might work for your friend.
Christine has given you lots of good feedback. I only have one additional point to offer. The market for molecular biologists in academia has been super-saturated for years. I've known people who've been working post-docs for as many as 20 years. When big universities post adverts for molecular biologists, they often get hundreds of applications for each position. To rise to the top of that pile, you really have to be outstanding. Smaller universities attract smaller applicant pools (because most people believe that **they're** really more suited to a job at Harvard...), so that would help a little, but even small schools get large applicant pools for these positions.
Industry opens up other options, but as your friend probably knows... once in industry, it's very difficult to move back into academia.
There are lots of unemployed PhD's in the US, and among biologists, plenty of molecular types by virtue of the number of graduate programs in the world. Many programs with somewhat lower employment prospects tend to "self-regulate" the numbers of their graduates so as not to build a reputation for having unemployed grads. Molecular programs generally haven't seen this as a problem due to the relatively readily available grant funding in their field.
Getting a tenure-track job in a university is a 99th percentile career. Most of us (professors, etc.) have numerous friends and colleagues who've ended-up unemployed. The economy is tough for scientists these days, as always.
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