Chapter 3 | Science and Engineering Labor Force

S&E Labor Market Conditions

In general, unemployment rates among scientists and engineers tend to be lower than the rates for the labor force as a whole. In February 2015 (the reference month for the NSCG), an estimated 3.3% of scientists and engineers were unemployed (Appendix Table 3-8); the comparable unemployment rate for the entire U.S. labor force was higher, 5.8%.^​ Although the unemployment rate among scientists and engineers has gradually declined since the Great Recession, the rate in February 2015 continued to exceed the October 2006 (2.5%) pre-recession rate (Appendix Table 3-8). This shows clearly that the nation’s S&E population, although somewhat sheltered, is not immune from fluctuations in broader economic conditions.

In 2015, unemployment rates varied across occupational categories. Among those in S&E occupations, unemployment rates ranged from 2.1% (among engineers) to 4.1% (among life scientists); among those in S&E-related and non-S&E occupations, the rate was 1.8% and 4.3%, respectively (Appendix Table 3-8). Additionally, advanced degree holders were generally less vulnerable to unemployment than those with only a bachelor’s degree (Appendix Table 3-8).

The extent of unemployment also varies by career stages. S&E highest degree holders within 5–30 years after obtaining their highest degree were, for the most part, less likely to be unemployed than those at earlier points in their careers (Figure 3-15). As workers strengthen their skills by acquiring labor market experience and adding on-the-job knowledge to their formal training, their work situations become more secure. However, for those in the very late career stages (30 or more years after obtaining their highest degree), the unemployment rates turn higher than for those within 5–30 years after obtaining their highest degree. Growing selectivity about desirable work, skill obsolescence, and other factors may contribute to this phenomenon. The trends of lower unemployment during early- to mid-career stages compared with very early or very late stages hold for the bachelor’s and doctoral degree levels, but not for the master’s level (Figure 3-15).

CPS unemployment rates over the past two decades indicate that workers in S&E occupations have historically experienced lower unemployment rates than the overall labor force (Figure 3-16).^​ In addition, unemployment for all groups peaked after the 1990–91, 2001, and 2007–09 recessions, indicating once again that S&E workers are not immune from economic fluctuations.

Individuals invest time and financial resources in developing their knowledge and skills. Working outside of one’s chosen field of education for involuntary reasons may create skills mismatches and economic inefficiencies that can be viewed as one indicator of labor market stress. Individuals work outside their highest degree field for a variety of reasons. Those who reported that they did so because suitable work was not available in their degree field are referred to here as involuntarily out-of-field (IOF) workers, and their number relative to all employed individuals is the IOF rate.

Of the 25 million employed scientists and engineers in 2015, almost 1.6 million reported working out of their field of highest degree because of a lack of suitable jobs in their degree field, yielding an IOF rate of 6.3%. For the more than 13.5 million whose highest degree was in an S&E field, the IOF rate was 7.9% (Table 3-12). NCSES survey respondents were allowed to provide more than one reason for working out of field. Other reasons cited by S&E degree holders included pay and promotion opportunities (reported by 1.8 million individuals), change in career or professional interests (1.2 million), working conditions (1.4 million), family-related reasons (751,000), job location (1.5 million), and other reasons (347,000). This suggests that, in addition to lack of a suitable job, various job-related and personal attributes such as compensation, location, and professional interest may result in out-of-field employment.

IOF rates vary by S&E degree fields and levels. Those with a highest degree in engineering or computer and mathematical sciences display lower IOF rates than those with a highest degree in physical, life, or social sciences (Table 3-12). The high IOF rates among social sciences degree holders, particularly in comparison with engineering and with computer and mathematical sciences degree holders, are evident across most of the career cycle (Figure 3-17). Additionally, S&E advanced degree holders are less likely to work IOF than those with S&E bachelor’s degrees only: in 2015, the IOF rate was 1.8% among S&E doctorate holders, 4.2% among those with S&E master’s degrees, and 9.7% among those with S&E bachelor’s degrees.

According to the OES survey, individuals in S&E occupations earn considerably more than the overall workforce. The median annual salary in 2016 in S&E occupations (regardless of education level or field) was $83,900, which is more than double the median for all U.S. workers ($37,040) (Table 3-13). This reflects a high level of formal education and technical skills associated with S&E occupations. Median S&E salaries in 2013–16 rose at about the same rate (1.7%) as that for all U.S. workers (1.8%). In 2016, median salaries for workers in S&E occupations ranged from $73,060 for social scientists to $91,430 for engineers. Salaries for workers in S&E-related occupations displayed similar patterns of higher earnings relative to the overall workforce. Health-related occupations, the largest segment of S&E-related occupations, cover a wide variety of workers ranging from physicians, surgeons, and practitioners to nurses, therapists, pharmacists, and health technicians; as a result, these occupations display a large variation in salary levels (Table 3-13).

Overall, college-educated individuals with an S&E or S&E-related degree enjoy an earnings premium compared to those with a non-S&E degree; for the most part, this earnings premium is present across career stages. Figure 3-18 presents data on median salaries for groups with S&E, S&E-related, or non-S&E highest degrees at comparable numbers of years since receiving their highest degrees. Although median salaries are similar in the beginning for S&E and non-S&E degree holders, and both are lower than the median salary for S&E-related degree holders, the rise in earnings associated with career progression is much steeper among individuals with S&E degrees. Among S&E highest degree holders, those with engineering or computer and mathematical sciences degrees earn more than degree holders in other broad S&E fields during early to mid-career stages; engineering degree holders continue to enjoy an earnings premium through later career stages compared with their counterparts with degrees in most other broad S&E fields (Figure 3-19).

Earnings also vary by degree levels. For those with an S&E highest degree, annual median salaries are higher with a master’s or doctoral degree (Appendix Table 3-9), and this pattern holds across career stages (Figure 3-20). Among all occupations, those with an S&E-related or non-S&E highest degree, professional degree holders earn the most (Appendix Table 3-9). The relatively high median salaries among S&E-related or non-S&E professional degree holders are driven primarily by medical practitioners and lawyers, respectively. A majority of college graduate workers whose highest degree is a professional degree in an S&E-related field (68%) work as a diagnosing or treating practitioner (with a median salary of $139,000); a majority of those whose highest degree is a professional degree in a non-S&E field (77%) work as a lawyer or judge (with a median salary of $124,000).

Among employed individuals without a bachelor’s degree, workers in S&E occupations have more stable jobs with higher salaries than those in non-S&E occupations. (See sidebar A Broader Look at the S&E Workforce.)

In today’s knowledge-based and globally integrated economy—marked by rapid information flow and development of new knowledge, products, and processes—demand for certain skills and abilities may change fast. The employment outcomes of recent graduates are an important indicator of current changes in labor market conditions. Compared with experienced S&E workers, recent S&E graduates more often bring new ideas and newly acquired skills to the labor market. This section examines the employment outcomes of recent recipients of S&E bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees.

Table 3-14 summarizes some basic labor market statistics in 2015 for recent recipients of S&E degrees. Recent here is defined as between 1 and 5 years since receiving the highest degree. Among the over 25 million scientists and engineers employed in February 2015, 2.6 million were recent S&E degree recipients. Overall, the unemployment rate among recent S&E graduates was 5.6%, compared with the 3.3% unemployment rate overall among scientists and engineers.

Among recent bachelor’s degree holders, the unemployment rate averaged 6.8%, ranging from about 3% for those with computer and mathematical sciences degrees to 12.1% for those with biological, agricultural, and environmental life sciences degrees. Overall, unemployment was generally lower for those with recent doctorates and master’s degrees than for those with recent bachelor’s level degrees. Early in their careers, as individuals gather labor market experience and on-the-job skills, they tend to have a higher incidence of job change and unemployment, which may partially explain some of the higher unemployment rates seen among those with a bachelor’s degree as their highest degree.

A useful but more subjective indicator of labor market conditions for recent graduates is the proportion who report that their job is unrelated to their highest degree field because a job in their degree field was not available (i.e., the IOF rate). Of the nearly 2.6 million employed scientists and engineers who received their highest degree in an S&E field in the previous 5 years, an estimated 10.4% indicated working involuntarily out of field in 2015 (Table 3-14). Therefore, the IOF rate among recent S&E degree recipients in 2015 was higher than the IOF rate among all S&E highest degree holders (7.9%). NSF survey respondents were allowed to report more than one reason for working out of field, as well as the most important reason for working out of field. When asked about the most important reason for working out of field, the reasons most frequently cited by recent S&E degree recipients were lack of a suitable job in their degree field (cited by 32% of those working out of field), followed by pay and promotion opportunities (18%) and change in career or professional interests (14%). The responses provided by all S&E highest degree holders working out of field (regardless of graduation year) were similar, but the factors were ranked differently: the most frequently cited reasons were pay and promotion opportunities (cited by 24% of all S&E highest degree holders working out of field), followed by change in career or professional interests (19%) and lack of a suitable job in their degree field (19%).

IOF rates vary across S&E degree levels and fields. Overall, IOF rates are lower among advanced degree holders compared with those with only bachelor’s level degrees, but significant variation exists across degree fields. Among recent bachelor’s degree holders, the IOF rate ranged from 3.9% among recent engineering graduates to 19.4% among recent graduates in the social sciences (Table 3-14). Among recent bachelor’s degree holders in social sciences, IOF rates were high in most major fields, including political sciences, psychology, and sociology and anthropology.

The median salary for recent S&E bachelor’s degree recipients in 2015 was $37,000, ranging from $30,000 in life sciences and physical sciences to $62,000 in engineering (Table 3-14). Recent master’s degree recipients had a median salary of $58,000, and recent doctorate recipients had a median salary of $66,000.

The career rewards of highly skilled individuals in general, and of doctorate holders in particular, often extend beyond salary and employment to the more personal rewards of doing the kind of work for which they have trained. No single standard measure satisfactorily reflects the state of the doctoral S&E labor market. This section discusses a range of relevant labor market indicators, including unemployment rates, IOF employment, employment in academia compared with other sectors, employment in postdoctoral positions, and salaries. Although a doctorate can expand career and salary opportunities, these opportunities may come at the price of many years of lost labor market earnings due to the number of years required to earn the degree.

Unemployment. In February 2015, the unemployment rate for SEH doctorate recipients up to 3 years after receiving their doctorates was 2.7% (Table 3-15), compared to an unemployment rate of 1.8% for all SEH doctorates. The unemployment rate for recent SEH doctorate recipients was also lower than the unemployment rate for the entire population of scientists and engineers, regardless of level or year of award of highest degree (3.3%).

Working involuntarily out of field. About 1.7% of employed recent SEH doctorate recipients reported that they took a job that was not related to the field of their doctorate because a suitable job in their field was not available (Table 3-15). This was relatively better than the IOF rate for all S&E highest degree holders (7.9%).

Tenure-track positions. Although many science doctorate recipients aspire to tenure-track academic appointments (Sauermann and Roach 2012), most end up working in other types of positions and sectors. In 2015, about 14% of those who had earned their SEH doctorate within the previous 3 years had a tenured or tenure-track faculty appointment (Table 3-16).^​ Across the broad SEH fields, this proportion varied significantly, from less than 10% among recent doctorates in life sciences, physical sciences, and engineering to 38% among those in the social sciences.

The proportion of SEH doctorates who hold a tenured or tenure-track faculty appointment increases with years of experience. In 2015, 18% of SEH doctorates in the labor market for 3–5 years had tenure or a tenure-track appointment, compared with 14% of their colleagues who were within 3 years of doctorate receipt (Table 3-16). The extent of the increase varies across the broad areas of training. In the social sciences, for example, a relatively large percentage of individuals obtain a tenured or tenure-track position within 3 years of earning their doctorate, and the percentage associated with 3–5 years of labor market exposure remains similar; in others fields, such as physical sciences or engineering, this percentage increases. (See Chapter 5 for an in-depth discussion of various types of academic positions held by S&E doctorate holders.)

Desirable nonacademic employment opportunities may provide an alternative career path to that of a tenured or tenure-track appointment. Among recent doctorates in most S&E fields, median salaries are significantly higher in the business sector than in tenured or tenure-track academic positions (Table 3-17). The proportion of recent graduates who obtain tenure or tenure-track employment has declined since 1993 in a number of broad areas of SEH training (Table 3-16). One of the steepest declines occurred in computer sciences, particularly among individuals within 3–5 years of receiving their doctorates, despite the high demand for computer sciences faculty.

Salaries for recent SEH doctorate recipients. For all SEH degree fields in 2015, the median annual salary for recent doctorate recipients within 5 years after receiving their degrees was $74,000 (Table 3-17). Across various SEH degree fields, median annual salaries ranged from a low of $54,000 in biological sciences to a high of $114,000 in computer and information sciences. Between 2013 and 2015, median salaries increased overall among recent recipients of SEH doctorates; the median salary for recent SEH doctorate recipients in 2013 was $70,000.

By type of employment, salaries for recent doctorate recipients ranged from $47,000 for postdoctoral positions in 4-year institutions to $99,000 for those employed in the business sector (Table 3-17). Each sector, however, exhibited substantial internal variation by SEH fields of training.

A significant number of new S&E doctorate recipients take a postdoctoral appointment (generally known as a postdoc) as their first position after receiving their doctorate. Postdoc positions are defined as temporary, short-term positions, primarily for acquiring additional training in an academic, a government, an industry, or a nonprofit setting.^​ In many S&E disciplines, a postdoc position is generally expected to be competitive for obtaining a faculty position.

Individuals in postdoc positions often perform cutting-edge research and receive valuable training. These positions, however, generally offer lower salaries than permanent positions. A factor that has received much attention in science policy is the growth seen over the last three decades in the number of postdocs in both traditional (e.g., life sciences and physical sciences) and nontraditional (e.g., social sciences and engineering) academic disciplines and in an environment where the availability of research-intensive academic positions—the type of jobs for which postdocs are typically trained—have not risen at a similar pace (ACS 2013; NAS/NAE/IOM 2000, 2014; NIH 2012). Neither the reasons for this growth nor its effects on the state of scientific research are well understood. However, possible contributing factors include increases in competition for tenure-track academic research jobs, the need for collaborative research in large teams, the influx of graduate students in SEH areas with strong postdoc traditions, and the need for additional specialized training.

Number of postdocs. The estimated number of postdocs varies depending on the data source used. No single data source measures the entire population of postdocs. Three NSF surveys—the SDR, the Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering, and the Early Career Doctorates Survey (ECDS)^​—include data related to the number of postdocs in the United States. The three surveys overlap in some populations (such as U.S.-trained doctorate holders and those working in academia) but differ in others. For instance, the SDR covers U.S.-trained postdocs in all sectors—academic, industry, and government—whereas the Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering and the ECDS cover both U.S.- and foreign-trained doctorate holders in academia but not all postdocs in the industry and government sectors.^​ In addition, the titles of postdoc researchers vary across organizations and often change as individuals advance through their postdoc appointments; both factors further complicate the data collection process (NIH 2012).

The SDR estimated that 26,700 U.S. SEH doctorate recipients in 2015 were employed in postdoc positions. The majority of these postdoc positions were in 4-year academic institutions (72%), with the remainder in the business sector (19%) and government sector (9%). Within the business sector, nonprofit organizations accounted for most of the postdoc positions. The estimated totals from NCSES’s Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering and the ECDS are significantly higher: 63,900 and 69,600, respectively, in 2015 (Arbeit and Kang 2017; NSF/NCSES 2017; Phou 2017). Both the SDR and the Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering report increases in the number of postdocs since 2003. The SDR reported 30,800 postdocs in 2010 and 19,800 over a decade earlier in 2003, while the Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering gives past totals of postdocs at 63,400 in 2010 and 46,700 in 2003.

Postdocs by academic discipline. Although postdocs are increasingly common in SEH fields, the extent to which a postdoc appointment is part of an individual’s career path varies greatly across SEH fields. Postdocs have historically been more common in life sciences and physical sciences than in other fields such as social sciences and engineering. Among new doctorate recipients in 2015, 63% in life sciences (including agricultural sciences and natural resources, biological and biomedical sciences, and health sciences) and 64% in physical sciences indicated they would take a postdoc appointment, compared to 38% in psychology and social sciences and 36% in engineering (Appendix Table 3-10).^​ However, in life sciences and physical sciences, the proportion of new doctorate recipients indicating that they would take a postdoc position rose significantly between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s and has fluctuated within a relatively narrow range since then. In the social sciences, the comparable proportion has continued to rise gradually since the early 1970s. In engineering, the comparable proportion has risen overall between 1975 and 2015, despite periodic fluctuations within this 40-year period.

Another indicator of the variation in postdoc appointments across S&E disciplines is the proportion of recent graduates who are currently employed as a postdoc (as opposed to those who plan to take a postdoc position after graduation). In 2015, over 40% of those who had received their doctorates in the previous 3 years in biological, agricultural, and environmental life sciences and nearly one-third in physical sciences (31%) were employed in postdoc positions, compared to only 5% of those who received doctorates in the social sciences (Figure 3-21).

Postdoc compensation. Low compensation for postdocs is frequently raised as a concern by those who are worried about the effect of the increasing number of postdoc positions on the attractiveness of science careers. In 2015, among individuals who had received their doctorate within the past 5 years, the median salary for postdocs ($47,000) was just over half the median salary for individuals in other positions (i.e., non-postdoc positions) ($82,000) (Table 3-18). The difference in median salary between postdocs and non-postdocs ranged from about half among individuals with doctorates in engineering (52%) and computer and information sciences (53%) to over two-thirds among those with doctorates in the biological, agricultural, and environmental life sciences (69%).

Based on SDR data, among recent graduates, somewhat larger proportions of postdocs than non-postdocs have access to certain employer-provided benefits, such as health insurance (96% of postdocs and 92% of non-postdocs) and paid vacation, sick, or personal days (89% of postdocs and 85% of non-postdocs). However, a much smaller proportion of recent graduates in postdoc positions have access to employer-provided pensions or retirement plans (52% of postdocs and 82% of non-postdocs) or profit-sharing plans (8% of postdocs and 23% of non-postdocs). Information on the quality of these benefits—for example, the coverage and premium of health insurance plans, number of personal days offered by employers, and type of retirement benefits and profit-sharing plans—is not available.

Reasons for taking postdoc positions. The 2015 SDR asked individuals in postdoc positions to report their primary reason for accepting these appointments. Most responses were consistent with the traditional objective of a postdoc position as a type of advanced apprenticeship for career progression, such as “postdoc generally expected in field” (32%), “additional training in PhD field” (17%), “training in an area outside of PhD field” (15%), or “work with a specific person or place” (15%). A smaller proportion (14%) of those in postdoc appointments reported lack of other suitable employment as the primary reason for accepting these positions.

Characteristics of postdocs. According to the Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering, women held 40% of the nearly 64,000 academic postdoc positions in 2015 in SEH fields.^​ Temporary visa holders accounted for 55% of the academic postdocs, and U.S. citizens and permanent residents accounted for the remaining 45%. Among postdocs in engineering, however, the proportion of women was lower (22%) and the proportion of temporary visa holders was higher (67%) than the overall SEH shares. Between 1979 and 2015, the number of academic postdocs increased more than threefold, driven primarily by temporary visa holders, who accounted for nearly two-thirds (64%) of the total increase. The majority of academic postdocs (62%) in 2015 were supported by research grants; the rest were supported by fellowships, traineeships, or other mechanisms.