It really depends on what you specialized in and what you want to do. If youre in engineering and your university gets funding from a company, can be an easy path to employment.

That said, in general, the type of person who wants a phd doesn't always have the same mindset as someone who doesnt. A big part of engineering in practice is realizing when you have enough information to make a decision and how to quickly and cheaply obtain that information, and that doesn't always align with the work scope that gives the best information.

It is that bad. Not an impossible challenge but you have to learn whole new skill sets too. And adjust your mindset radically

I've heard the concern that employers are worried someone with a PhD who is taking a "lesser" job won't be around all that long and will continue job hunting for something better. For employers with this mindset, I'd like to suggest: 1) it's not too hard to beat academia wages; 2) find ways to promote within/add responsibility when people prove themselves

Depends on your field and thesis.

The NIH postdoc rate and therefore academic standards in most places for all biomedical postdocs is ~60k. Math is an outlier by a lot.

I volunteered a fair bit at my college’s food pantry. The undergrads might grab one or two things. The grad students and the post docs were desperate.

You gotta compare this to standard industry pay for this level of education