In the most typical scenario a law enforcement agency finds skeletal remains and asks a forensic anthropologist for help in identifying who the deceased individual is.
Many people think there are a lot of jobs available in forensic anthropology.
As much as I wish that were true, I haven't found it to be so. The reason for this is that there simply aren't enough cases, even in a big city like Los Angeles or New York City, to keep a forensic anthropologist busy. Combine this with the fact that there are many forensic anthropology students who compete for the privilege of working on cases for free, and you begin to see how grim the situation is. Getting a job as college faculty or a museum curator, or working for the army usually requires a Ph.D. in anthropology, and in the 1990's is very difficult even with a Ph.D. Most of the people who are successful at landing the few available jobs have degrees from one of the major forensic anthropology programs. Colleges and Universities with good graduate programs also tend to have good undergraduate programs.