S& E employment rates vary widely by field. Recent (1988 and 1989) graduates with bachelors degrees in the social sciences and psychology had relatively low S& E employment rates--26 percent and 27 percent, respectively--in 1990. In contrast, recent graduates who majored in the computer, environmental, or physical sciences had much higher rates of S& E employment--85 percent, 77 percent, and 68 percent, respectively. These rates are comparable to those for the engineering specialties. In 1990, S& E employment rates exceeded 80 percent in all but one of the engineering disciplines.
In-field employment rates--i.e., the proportion of graduates employed in the fields in which they got their degrees--are much lower than S& E employment rates. (See text table 3-1.) Not surprisingly, masters degree recipients are far more likely than those with only bachelors degrees to be employed in the fields in which they got their education. About 60 percent of all recent (1988 and 1989) masters degree recipients--compared to 38 percent of all recent bachelors degree recipients--were employed in their major fields of study in 1990.
College graduates who do not seek immediate employment usually enter graduate school. Approximately 20 percent of 1988 and 1989 S& E bachelors degree recipients were attending graduate school full time in 1990, down from 23 percent 10 years earlier (another indicator of healthy S& E job creation during the 1980s). Interestingly, over one-third of the 1988 and 1989 S& E bachelors degree recipients attending graduate school full time in 1990 were pursuing professional degrees in medicine, dentistry, law, or business.(Click here for footnote 11.)
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