Doctors of Audiology

Something has been puzzling me since graduation and I thought my blog would be a good place to seek the wisdom of others. During the ceremony, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences conferred degrees upon about a hundred Doctors of Audiology. It seemed that there was an unending line of them, all giggling and giddy (most were women), ready to be hooded and marched across the stage. Which is all fine, of course, nothing wrong with that. What puzzled me is this: what exactly is a Doctor of Audiology? What does that person do? What, in fact, does their degree allow them to do? On that day, the University of Florida released about a hundred Doctors of Audiology out into the world, armed to.... do what? A fellow historian who sat next to me during the ceremony posited that perhaps these were the people who administered hearing tests at public schools. A logical assumption, I'll admit. But isn't there a theoretical maximum to the number of Doctors of Audiology the world can employ? Let's assume, for example, that every school district in the country needed one hearing tester. And that of those, only a handful retired each year. If the University of Florida graduates 150 Doctors of Audiology a year (assuming a hundred in the spring and fifty in the fall), and other universities with similar programs graduate an equal number of Doctors of Audiology at the same time, isn't the world going to be overrun with these people? Aren't we going to have an overabundance of highly trained unemployed people on our hands? If someone knows the answer, I'd really like to know. I could look it up myself, of course, but I'm busy trying to put the finishing touches on a lecture about the Spanish-American War. It's a topic I know little about, so I'm well-equipped to speak with authority about it.