The Numbers of Engineers and Scientists Are Growing

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? Technological innovation is one of the key drivers of overall economic progress, and it is fueled by a strong engineering and scientific workforce.

THE TREND: () As a share of the workforce, scientists and engineers grew moderately throughout the 1980s, and even faster since 1993. But because jobs requiring science and engineering expertise are forecast to increase three times faster than other occupations between 1994 and 2005, the demand for scientists and engineers is expected to exceed supply by approximately four percent. Much of this increase has been driven by a rapidly growing demand for computer scientists and programmers, who increased as a share of all scientists and engineers from 23 percent in 1983 to 36 percent in 1997.

Foreign-born scientists and engineers are also becoming a more valuable part of our economy. The numbers of immigrant scientists and engineers admitted with permanent visas to meet growing industry demand has doubled from 0.3 percent of the science and engineering workforce in 1988 to 0.6 percent in 1993. Similarly, while only 1.3 percent of all Ph.D. scientists and engineers in the United States who have had a degree for more than 25 years are foreign born, almost one-quarter (24.3 percent) of those who earned their degrees in the last five years are foreign born.

THE DATA:

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Index Home | Introduction
SECTION I | SECTION II | SECTION III
Productivity Paradox | Knowledge Economy
Nine Myths | Data Sources | Endnotes | The Authors

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI)
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