Chapter 3: Science and Engineering Labor Force - Labor Market Conditions for Recent S&E Graduates

The labor market activities of recent S&E graduates often serve as the most sensitive indicators of changes in the S&E labor market. This section looks at a number of standard labor market indicators for bachelor's and master's degree recipients, and also examines a number of other indicators that may apply only to recent S&E doctorate-recipients.

In general, recent graduates in S&E fields found good labor market conditions during the periods for which NSF/SRS survey data exist (April 1999 for bachelor's degree recipients and master's degree recipients, and April 2001 for doctorate-recipients). Between 1999 and 2001, the proportion of recent S&E doctorate-recipients obtaining tenure-track positions increased slightly and the number of individuals entering postdocs decreased slightly. Despite these changes, only about one-fifth of S&E doctorate-recipients hold tenure-track positions 4–6 years after receiving their degrees.

Bachelor's and Master's Degree Recipients

Recent recipients of S&E bachelor's and master's degrees form an important component of the U.S. S&E work-force, accounting for almost half of the annual inflow into S&E occupations.[13] Recent graduates' career choices and entry into the labor market affect the supply and demand for scientists and engineers throughout the United States. This section offers insight into labor market conditions for recent S&E graduates in the United States. Topics examined include graduate school enrollment rates, employment by level and field of degree, employment sectors, and median annual salaries.

Relation of Employment to School

In 1999, approximately one-fifth of 1997 and 1998 graduates who had earned either bachelor's or master's degrees were enrolled full time in school at some level. Students who had majored in physical and life sciences were more likely to be full-time students than were graduates with degrees in computer and information sciences and engineering (appendix table 3-17

Relation of Employment to Level and Field of Degree

Job market success varies significantly by level and field of degree. Finding employment directly related to field of study serves as one measure of success. In 1999, over half of employed master's degree recipients but only one-fifth of employed bachelor's degree recipients worked in jobs closely related to the field of their highest degree. Among both master's and bachelor's degree recipients, more students who had received their degrees in either engineering or computer sciences and mathematics worked in their field of study compared with individuals who received degrees in other S&E fields, whereas students who had received degrees in social sciences were less likely than their counterparts in other S&E fields to have jobs directly related to their degrees.

Employment Sectors

The private, for-profit sector employs the majority of recent S&E bachelor's and master's degree recipients (table 3-12

). In 1999, 63 percent of bachelor's degree recipients and 57 percent of master's degree recipients found employment with private, for-profit companies. The education sector employs the second largest group of recent S&E graduates and more master's degree recipients (12 percent) than bachelor's degree recipients (8 percent) found employment with 4-year colleges and universities. The Federal sector employed only 5 percent of recent S&E master's degree recipients and 4 percent of bachelor's degree recipients in 1999; more engineering graduates than science graduates found employment in the Federal sector. Other sectors that employed only small numbers of recent S&E graduates include educational institutions other than 4-year colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, and state and local government agencies. Only very small percentages of engineering bachelor's and master's degree recipients (1 and 2 percent, respectively) were self-employed.

Employment and Career Paths

As one might expect, more S&E master's degree holders reported having a career-path job compared with S&E bachelor's degree holders. (Career-path jobs help graduates fulfill their future career plans.) Approximately three-fourths of all master's degree recipients and three-fifths of all bachelor's degree recipients held a career-path job in 1999. Graduates with degrees in computer and information sciences or in engineering were more likely to hold career-path jobs compared with graduates with degrees in other fields: about four-fifths of recent bachelor's and master's degree graduates in computer and information sciences and in engineering reported that they held career-path jobs.

Salaries

In 1999, recent (1–3 years since degree) bachelor's degree recipients with degrees in computer and information sciences earned the highest median annual salaries ($44,000) among all recent science graduates. For recent graduates with degrees in engineering, individuals receiving degrees in electrical/electronics, computer, and communications engineering earned the highest median annual salaries ($46,000). The same pattern held true for recent master's degree recipients: individuals receiving degrees in computer and information sciences earned the highest median annual salaries ($58,000) among science graduates. Among engineering graduates, individuals who received master's degrees in electrical/electronics, computer, and communications engineering earned the highest median annual salaries ($60,000) (appendix table 3-17

Doctoral Degree Recipients

Analyses of labor market conditions for scientists and engineers holding doctorate degrees often focus on the ease or difficulty of beginning careers for recent doctoral degree recipients. Although a doctorate degree does create more career opportunities, both in terms of salary and type of employment, these opportunities come at the price of many years of foregone labor market earnings. Many doctorate holders also face an additional period of low earnings while completing a postdoc. In addition, some doctorate holders may not find themselves in the type of employment they desired while in graduate school.

Since the 1950s, the Federal Government has actively encouraged graduate training in S&E through numerous mechanisms. Ph.D. programs have served multiple facets of the national interest by providing a supply of more highly trained and motivated graduate students to aid university-based research. These programs have provided individuals with detailed, highly specialized training in particular areas of research, and paradoxically, through that same specialized training, generated a general ability to perform self-initiated research in more diverse areas.

The career aspirations of highly skilled individuals in general, and doctorate holders in particular, often cannot be measured through just salary and employment. Their technical and problem-solving skills make them highly employable, but they often attach great importance to the opportunity to do a type of work they care about and for which they have been trained. For that reason, no single measure can satisfactorily describe the doctoral S&E labor market. Some of the available labor market indicators, such as unemployment rates, IOF and in-field employment, satisfaction with field of study, employment in academia, postdocs, and salaries, are discussed below.

Aggregate measures of labor market conditions changed only slightly between 1999 and 2001 for recent (1–3 years after receipt of degree) S&E doctoral degree recipients. Unemployment rates for recent S&E doctoral degree recipients across all fields of study did not change significantly during that period (table 3-13

). However, a smaller proportion of recent doctoral degree recipients reported working IOF (because jobs in their fields were not available) or involuntarily working part time; thus, the overall IOF rate decreased from 4.2 to 3.4 percent. However, these aggregate numbers mask numerous changes, both positive and negative, in many individual disciplines. In addition, IOF and unemployment rates in some fields moved in opposite directions.

Unemployment

Even for relatively good labor market conditions in the general economy, the 1.3 percent unemployment rate for recent S&E doctoral degree recipients as of April 2001 was very low; the April 2001 unemployment rate for all civilian workers was 4.4 percent and the rate for college graduates was 2.0 percent.[14] The highest unemployment rates were for recent doctoral degree recipients in civil engineering (3.5 percent), mechanical engineering (3.2 percent), and economics (2.2 percent).

Involuntarily Working Outside Field

Another 3.4 percent of recent S&E doctoral degree recipients in the labor force reported in 2001 that they could not find (if they were seeking) full-time employment that was "closely related" or "somewhat related" to their degrees—a small decrease from 4.2 percent in 1999.[15] Although this measure is more subjective than the unemployment rate, the IOF rate often proves to be a more sensitive indicator of labor market difficulties for a highly educated and employable population. However, it is best to use both IOF rate and unemployment rate as measures of two different forms of labor market distress.

The highest IOF rates were found for recent doctoral degree recipients in political science (8.7 percent), physics and astronomy (8.2 percent), and sociology and anthropology (6.3 percent). However, in every case, these rates represented a drop from even higher rates in 1999. The lowest IOF rates were found in electrical engineering (1.5 percent), mechanical engineering (1.7 percent), and economics (2.1 percent).

Tenure-Track Positions

Most S&E doctorate holders ultimately do not work in academia and this has been true in most S&E fields for several decades (see chapter 5). In 2001, among S&E Ph.D. holders who received their degree 4–6 years previously, 19.2 percent were in tenure-track or tenured positions at 4-year institutions of higher education (table 3-14

). Across fields, rates of tenure program academic employment for individuals who had received their degree 4–6 years previously ranged from 4.3 percent in chemical engineering to 44.1 percent in sociology and anthropology. Among Ph.D. holders who received their degree 1–3 years previously, only 16.2 percent were in tenure programs; this rate reflects the increasing use of postdocs by recent doctoral degree recipients in many fields. Between 1999 and 2001, a paradoxical pattern occurred: the proportion of the most recent doctoral degree recipients in tenure-track positions increased (although it remained below 1993 levels), but members of the group who received their degree 4–6 years previously showed a continued decline.

Although S&E doctorate holders must consider academia just one possible sector of employment, the availability of tenure-track positions is an important aspect of the job market for individuals who seek academic careers. A decrease in the rate of tenure-track employment for individuals who received their degree 4–6 years previously, from 26.6 percent in 1993 to 19.2 percent in 2001, reflects the availability both of tenure-track job opportunities in academia and of alternative employment opportunities. For example, one of the largest declines in tenure-track employment occurred in computer sciences, from 51.5 percent in 1993 to 23.6 percent in 2001. Other measures of labor market distress in this field are low and computer science departments report difficulties recruiting faculty. The attractiveness of other areas of employment may also explain drops in tenure program rates for several engineering disciplines. However, it is less likely to explain smaller but steady drops in tenure program employment rates in fields that show other measures of distress, such as physics (with an IOF rate of 8.2 percent) and biological sciences (which has low unemployment and IOF rates, but shows other indications of labor market distress such as low salaries). Between 1993 and 2001, only psychology registered an increase in tenure program rates for individuals who received their doctorate 4–6 years previously, improving from 15.5 percent to 19.3 percent.

Relation of Occupation to Field of Degree

By strict definition of occupational titles, 16.9 percent of employed recent doctoral degree recipients worked in occupations outside S&E, often in administrative or management functions. However, when asked if their jobs related to their highest degree achieved, only 2.8 percent of recent doctoral degree recipients employed in non-S&E occupations reported that their jobs did not relate to their degree (table 3-15

). By field, the percentages working in occupations not related to S&E ranged from 1.6 percent in computer sciences and mathematics to 3.6 percent in physical sciences. However, the 24.7 percent of recent doctoral degree recipients in physical sciences and the 22.8 percent of recent doctoral degree recipients in engineering working in other S&E fields may be more noteworthy. Figures show that 10.1 percent of recent doctoral degree recipients in physical sciences were working in life science occupations, and 15.8 percent of recent engineering doctoral degree recipients in computer sciences and mathematics (table 3-15

Postdocs

The definition of postdocs differs among the academic disciplines, universities, and sectors that employ them, and these differences in usage probably affect self-reporting of postdoc status in the Survey of Recent Doctorate Recipients. Researchers often analyze data on postdoc appointments for recent doctoral degree recipients in relation to recent labor market issues. Although some of these individuals do want to receive more training in research, others may accept temporary (and usually lower-paying) postdoc positions because of a lack of permanent jobs in their field.

Science and Engineering Indicators — 1998 (NSB 1998) included an analysis of a one-time postdoc module from the 1995 Survey of Doctorate Recipients. This analysis showed a slow increase in the use of postdocs in many disciplines over time. (This rate was measured cross-sectionally by looking at the percentage of individuals in each graduation cohort who reported ever holding a postdoc position.) In addition, in physics and biological sciences (the fields with the most use of postdocs), median time spent in postdocs extended well beyond the 1–2 years found in most other fields.

Compared with 1999, data from 2001 show a small decline in the percentage of recent S&E doctoral degree recipients entering postdocs; this rate fell from 31.5 percent of 1998 graduates to 29.5 percent of 2000 graduates (figure 3-24

). Although many fields registered a small drop in the incidence of postdocs, the overall decline can mainly be attributed to a decrease in postdocs in the life sciences 1 year after degree from 56.4 percent in 1999 to 48.1 percent in 2001.

Reasons for Taking a Postdoc

In 2001, for all fields of degree, 11.5 percent of postdocs gave "other employment not available" as their primary reason for accepting a postdoc, compared with 32.1 percent of postdocs in 1999 (table 3-16

and NSB 2002). Most respondents gave reasons consistent with the defined training and apprenticeship functions of postdocs (e.g., 30 percent said that postdocs were generally expected for careers in their fields, 21 percent said they wanted to work with a particular person, 21 percent said they sought additional training in their fields, and 12 percent said they sought additional training outside their specialty). In 1999, a high proportion of postdocs in the biological sciences (38 percent) and physics (38 percent) had reported "other employment not available" as the primary reason for being in a postdoc, but in 2001, both fields had below average rates for this particular indicator of labor market distress.

What Were 1999 Postdocs Doing in 2001?

Of individuals in postdocs in April 1999, 36.5 percent remained in a postdoc in April 2001. This represented a small reduction from the 38.0 percent of 1997 postdocs still in their positions in 1999 (NSB 2002). Only 12.3 percent had moved from a postdoc to a tenure-track position at a 4-year educational institution, down from 15.1 percent of 1997 postdocs in 1999; 20.2 percent had found other employment at an educational institution; and 31.0 percent had found some other form of employment (figure 3-25

There is no available information on the career goals of individuals in postdoc positions. It is often assumed that a postdoc is valued most by academic departments at research universities. However, more postdocs in every field eventually accept employment with for-profit firms than obtain tenure-track positions, and many individuals accept tenure-track positions at schools that do not emphasize research.

Salaries for Recent S&E Ph.D. Recipients

In 2001, for all fields of degree, the median annual salary for recent S&E doctoral degree recipients reached $53,000, an increase of 8.2 percent from 1999. Across various S&E fields of degree, median annual salaries ranged from a low of $40,000 in the life sciences to a high of $75,000 in engineering (table 3-17

). Among all doctoral degree recipients, individuals in the top 10 percent of salary distribution (90th percentile) earned a median annual salary of $90,000. The 90th percentile salaries varied by field, from a low of $80,500 for individuals with degrees in the social sciences to a high of $108,000 for recent doctoral degree recipients in mathematics and computer sciences. At the 10th percentile, representing the lowest pay for each field, salaries ranged from $28,300 for recent doctoral degree recipients in the life sciences to $48,000 for individuals receiving degrees in engineering.

Table 3-18

shows changes in median annual salaries for recent bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree recipients (1–5 years since receipt of degree) for the period from 1997 to 1999. For all S&E fields, median salaries for recent doctoral degree recipients rose 4.7 percent from 1997 to 1999. For bachelor's and master's degree graduates, median salaries rose 0.0 and 2.5 percent, respectively. Several individual disciplines reflected larger increases for doctoral degree recipients; this included double-digit increases in economics (10.3 percent), physics (10.4 percent), computer sciences (12.0 percent), and mathematics (12.5 percent). A decline in median salaries occurred in biology (-3.7 percent).

Salary is measured here as a labor market outcome for all graduates, regardless of occupation or section of employment. Hence some of the changes may reflect different proportions going into academia or to even lower paying postdoc positions.

Footnotes

[13] Much of the data for this section comes from the National Survey of Recent College Graduates. This survey collected information on the 1999 workforce status of 1997 and 1998 bachelor's and master's degree recipients in S&E fields. NSF/SRS has sponsored surveys of recent S&E graduates biennially since 1978.

[14] People are said to be unemployed if they were not employed during the week of April 15, 1999, and had either looked for work during the preceding 4 weeks or were laid off from a job.

[15] Individuals counted as involuntarily out of field if they said they were working in jobs not related to their degree because no jobs in their field were available or if they were working part time because they could not find full-time work in their field.