Struggling to find work in pathology...unfortunate and not uncommon story.
There is major over training creating a big surplus. There is no current shortage (I mean we are technically experiencing the shortage right now according to publications, academics, and organizations) and never will be one in the future. The same story just a new year. Entering this field is a gamble and not a good one. Long term career prospects are very poor.
I think a bit part of this is the realization, after the recent major reimbursement cuts, that a lot of pathologists can simply do a lot more work than they had previously been accustomed to doing to maintain their same level of pay.
IE, the days of someone coming in, leisurely poring over 4-5 trays while slurping coffee, maybe doing a few frozens, then calling it a "day" are gone. A few years ago my group effectively absorbed the entire practice of a guy like that who retired. Yes, he was a dinosaur, but not only did we not add anyone, but with that work absorbed into a larger group of 6+ others, we barely even noticed it. So that was one "FTE" that effectively disappeared altogether!
If you look at the demographic info of currently practicing pathologists, about 15% of them are 60 years old or older. Although I think people have talked about a "retirement cliff", that's really not a huge cohort of imminent retirees. Although inevitably some these will be replaced by younger pathologists, with existing pathologists doing higher volumes, the replacement number may not be as high as the retirement number.
By far the BIGGEST cohort of pathologists in practice right now is the 50-55 year old crowd. In effect it means another 10-15 years before there is really going to be a large number of retirements. Also, I think this cohort is really more senior with more residual partnerships, power, and control than younger ones. As more and more specimens are controlled by large corporate groups, pathologists are just going to have less and less ability to control their own professional fates.
Offsetting this a *little* bit, global pathology specimen volumes are increasing and are expected to do so for some time. Extrapolate this out, and assuming no significant change to numbers of trainees, I think ten years from NOW, pathology may be in a place where increased volumes and significant decrease in practicing pathologists contributes to an actual shortage, but that doesn't help anyone now.