Overview of the US system for post-docs, contractors, and careers in solar physics (invited review)

This article is intended to offer young physicists specific information on job opportunities and careers in solar physics in the United States (US), a traditional post-Doc country for many young European physicists. There live about 500 solar physicists in the United States, which are employed at universities and colleges (43%), in government laboratories (35%), in private companies (8%), or have no official affiliation (14%). We provide a brief overview of the affiliations of the US solar physicists, where the academic institutions are located, what the government laboratories consist of, and what private companies have the largest contracts in the solar physics business. We compile also some demographic and sociological statistics from the larger groups of US astronomers and physicists, that may be of interest for prospective post-Docs.