Posted on February 25, 2006  Comments (2)

The National Science Board has release the comprehensive Science and Engineering Indicators 2006. The report contains a great deal of interesting information. Some highlights

The science and engineering workforce in the United States has grown rapidly, both over the last half century and the last decade.

• From 1950 to 2000, employment in S&E occupations grew from fewer than 200,000 to more than 4 million workers, an average annual growth rate of 6.4%.
• Between the 1990 and 2000 censuses, S&E occupations continued to grow at an average annual rate of 3.6%, more than triple the rate of growth of other occupations.
• Between 1980 and 2000, the total number of S&E degrees earned grew at an average annual rate of 1.5%, which was faster than labor force growth, but less than the 4.2% growth of S&E occupations. S&E bachelor’s degrees grew at a 1.4% average annual rate, and S&E doctorates at 1.9%.
• Approximately 12.9 million workers say they need at least a bachelor’s degree level of knowledge in S&E fields in their jobs. However, only 4.9 million were in occupations formally defined as S&E.
• Twelve million workers have an S&E degree as their highest degree and 15.7 million have at least one degree in an S&E field.
• Increases in median real salary for recent S&E graduates between 1993 and 2003 indicate relatively high demand for S&E skills during the past decade.

• For all broad S&E fields, median real salaries grew faster over the decade for master’s degree recipients than for bachelor’s in the same field. This ranged from a 31.8% increase in median real earnings for recipients of physical science master’s degrees to a 54.8% increase for recipients of master’s degrees in computer and mathematical sciences. At the master’s level, however, non-S&E degrees also enjoy large increases in real median salary, growing by 52.7%.