The fall is a sign of a slight increase in confidence in Greece's ability to pay back its loans. But analysts said there was still significant uncertainty ahead.

However, for the diehards who wish to do physics in spite of a bad job market, you may plan to have a “fall-back” job to pay the bills (e.g. programming) while you conduct research on your own time.

Having even a small cushion of savings to fall back on allows people to deal with the unexpected, such as suddenly having to pay for medical treatment.